According to the public prosecutor’s office, a 49-year-old German man and accomplices allegedly sold drugs worth around two million francs via the darknet. His defense lawyer considers the amount to be exaggerated.

• A 49-year-old German man and two accomplices are on trial in Zurich.
• The trio allegedly sold drugs worth around two million francs via the darknet.
• The public prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of 14.5 years for the main accused, a former financial analyst, at the Zurich District Court on Monday.
• The main defendant’s defence lawyer criticized the prosecution’s calculation of the quantities of drugs allegedly sold.

According to the indictment, the main accused, a former financial analyst, is alleged to have carried out a total of over 7,000 drug transactions on various online platforms between 2018 and 2022. Among other things, he is alleged to have sold more than 14 kilograms of cocaine. The man was arrested in May 2022. Since then, he has been in pre-trial detention or serving an early sentence.

The 49-year-old used various marketplaces on the darknet and the two messenger services Wickr and Telegram for his drug deals. The drugs were sent to customers in Switzerland by post. The customers paid in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

The public prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of 14.5 years for the man at the Zurich District Court on Monday. The two co-defendants are also to serve multi-year prison sentences. All three are German nationals and are to be expelled from the country after serving their sentences.

Both the indictment and the plea of the responsible public prosecutor provided an insight into the complex investigations in this case. These included visual and acoustic surveillance of an attic rented for drug dealing in Basel as well as covert house searches,

The City of Zurich’s Drug Information Center (DIZ) was also involved in the investigation. Among other things, the DIZ offers laboratory analyses of drugs. The darknet dealers exploited this service, which was actually intended to protect consumers, by having dozens of cocaine samples tested for purity. If this was high enough, they procured a larger quantity from the respective supplier.

When retrieving the laboratory results, the main accused used e-mail addresses that he also used on a crypto exchange. This is where some of the cryptocurrencies went, which his customers used to pay for the drugs.

In addition to the main accused, two other men were also on trial on Monday. One is said to have helped the alleged main offender to ship the drugs, while the other smuggled large quantities of various drugs from Germany to Switzerland on his behalf.

The trial will continue on Tuesday with the pleas of the defense lawyers of the two other accused. It has not yet been decided when the court will reach a verdict.