Model against drug dealers on the street
AThe district court, the public prosecutor’s office and the police in Frankfurt, as well as the Hessian Ministry of Justice, had a positive interim assessment on Tuesday of the model for combating drug-related crime in Frankfurt that has been in use since 2020 station district drawn. As police chief Gerhard Bereswill said, it was clear “that the street drug dealers are tied down” and that some who had been active in the station district for a long time and were known to the police had withdrawn.
Susanne Wetzel, President of the Frankfurt district court, spoke of a “prime example of cooperation between authorities”, Minister of Justice Eva Kühne-Hörmann (CDU) of a “dense and sophisticated communication”, the results of which serve to ensure the safety of the population. However, the minister also emphasized that drug-related crime cannot only be fought with the repressive means of criminal law, but that an interdisciplinary approach is also required, involving local authorities and social institutions.
The “three-pillar model” was developed by the local court, the police and the public prosecutor. The Ministry of Justice accompanied the process, among other things, with a joint trip to Cologne, where a similar model has been in use for some time. In Frankfurt, the aim is to prosecute drug dealers for commercial activities and thus effectively curb crime.
A perpetrator’s individual gain is no longer decisive
However, accusations and convictions for commercial trading were rare in this group of perpetrators due to case law. Because for years it was assumed for commercial activity that the perpetrator earns his livelihood “solely or mainly” by committing criminal offences. It was all about the profit that a perpetrator made, which hardly led to charges among the “small” street dealers: the police filed dozens of complaints, but in 2018 only one charge was filed, in 2019 two cases were entered but dropped. A frustrating result for officials.
That changed when the model was established. From then on, the police officers deployed in the station district paid attention to new, jointly developed indicators – the precise criteria of this first pillar of the pillar model did not want to be named by those responsible for protecting the procedures – the public prosecutor’s office brought charges that district court ruled. This case law was confirmed in September 2020 by the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court. Now it is no longer a matter of the individual profit of a perpetrator. The focus is elsewhere: Even with occasional profits, commercial activity can be assumed in view of the quantities sold and the frequency of the crime. To put it bluntly: Anyone who has been caught several times with a few bags of hashish can, under certain conditions, now be convicted of illegal commercial dealing in narcotics. The law provides for a prison sentence of not less than one year for such special cases.
Procedures should be accelerated
The first effects are visible: in 2020, 35 procedures were initiated and 16 lawsuits filed, in 2021 there were 50 procedures and 18 lawsuits. In 19 cases, the accused were sentenced to several years in prison. In addition, around 100,000 euros were found and confiscated directly from the arrested street dealers. Asset recovery, which was reformed by lawmakers in 2017, is the second pillar of the Frankfurt model and is intended to ensure that funds from drug deals are withdrawn from the drug cycle – even beyond what dealers have with them when they are arrested.
The third pillar is accelerated proceedings, which are possible under the new law where the facts of the case are simple and no complicated taking of evidence is expected, even if, for example, the accused has confessed. A maximum of one freedom road of one year may then be imposed. The accused is to be sentenced within a week and will remain in custody during this time. It is therefore not possible for him to go straight back to the street after being arrested by the police.
On Tuesday it was said that so far there have not been many accelerated procedures under the model. It has been stated time and again that the taking of evidence takes time. According to the district court, the lead time to the main hearing in drug-related crimes is currently six to eight weeks on average, and sometimes even shorter in the case of detention cases.