Overview
- At the Landgericht Hamburg, a 34-year-old is on trial for aiding trafficking by allegedly providing a van used to remove roughly 1.8 tonnes of cocaine from a container, as well as for false accusation after reporting the van stolen.
- Prosecutors say the December 2023 operation was uncovered by chance when a truck driver spotted a nighttime unloading in Wilhelmsburg and called police, prompting suspects to flee and leaving 1,794 kilograms concealed under banana cartons.
- The impounded container had been handled at the O'Swaldkai terminal, and investigators later found phone numbers in a getaway vehicle's navigation system that matched numbers on the defendant's phone.
- The court noted the defendant was previously convicted in Bremen after police found 48 kilograms of cocaine in a truck he was driving.
- In a separate case starting the same day, three men face charges over an alleged attempt to extract nearly 50 kilograms of cocaine from a banana container from South America after being caught on two consecutive days with tools and bags on the terminal.