Police reports from Berlin and Brandenburg: Fire in the area suspected of being explosive ordnance – Police & Justice – Berlin
Suspected drug gang arrested — drugs and weapons confiscated
Five suspected drug dealers are in Berlin and in Dallgow-Döberitz in Brandenburg been arrested. The 24 to 51-year-old men are suspected of being involved from March to June 2020 300 pounds of marijuana, 300 pounds of crystal meth (methamphetamine), 25 pounds of cocaine, and 1 pound of amphetamine to have acted, as the public prosecutor and the police in Berlin jointly participated on Thursday.
When searching 21 apartments in Berlin and one in Magdeburg (Saxony-Anhalt) Accordingly, on Wednesday, among other things, one and a half kilos of marijuana, weapons, luxury watches and more than 60,000 euros in cash and an expensive car were secured.
According to the authorities, they were involved in the action more than 250 police and customs officers involved. The investigators got on the trail of the suspected gang by evaluating messages from the encrypted chat program Encrochatwhich years ago was particularly popular with criminals.
Initially, the suspicion focused on four men, as the authorities further announced. Later, a 41-year-old man was also targeted. He is said to have handled the drug deals together with the other four suspects. All suspects are in custody.
The crypto messenger Encrochat was initially considered undecryptable and was therefore very common in the criminal scene. The police in France and the Netherlands were able to crack the software in spring 2020. More than 20 million secret chat messages were siphoned off. (dpa)