German Man Sentenced for Buying Cocaine on the Darkweb

A German man was sentenced to three years in prison after he was found guilty of reselling drugs he had purchased on the darkweb.

Lawyers for the defendant pointed out that the defendant had never received any of the drugs he had purchased because the police had seized every package.

The 31-year-old defendant from Rhineland-Palatinate was, according to reports, convicted of purchasing a total of approximately 90 grams of cocaine and 1.5 kilograms of amphetamine through the dark web in at least seven orders.

A police officer who testified during the defendant’s sentencing hearing at the Frankenthal Regional Court told the court that the investigations that resulted in the defendant’s arrest stemmed from an interception of a suspicious package addressed to the defendant in October 2020. The investigators found 60 grams of cocaine in the package. By February 2021, investigators had intercepted and seized six more drug packages addressed to the defendant.

Investigations revealed that the seized packages had fake return addresses, leaving them unable to identify the shipper. Investigators acquired and executed a search warrant at the defendant’s residence in March 2021. The search did not result in the seizure of any drugs. The investigators seized a scale, two smartphones, and packaging material.

While analyzing the phones, investigators recovered conversations between the defendant and drug vendors. The conversations allegedly showed that the defendant had been ordering cocaine and amphetamine from the vendors. Investigators also gained access to cryptocurrency wallets from which the defendant had paid for the drug orders.

The prosecution told the court that it had proved that the defendant had been purchasing drugs for resale and asked that he be sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. The defense however told the court that the sentence would be excessive since the defendant did not receive any of the drugs he had ordered as they were all intercepted and seized.

The court put into consideration the fact that the defendant was a repeat offender and sentenced him to three years in prison.