According to the indictment, Drach is said to have died there in September 2018 when he attacked a money messenger and stole daily income from a supermarket of around 90,000 euros.

The messenger who was attacked at the time said as a witness that he was “totally shocked” by the act. He never expected to be robbed. He locked the outer door when leaving the cash register when he suddenly saw a “white masked” man behind him in a mirrored glass pane in the door.

“Lie down immediately,” said the perpetrator. Then he held a weapon up to him “at head height”, probably a Kalashnikov. Since he didn’t lie down straight away, the robber repeated his instructions “definitely, but not loudly,” the witness said. When he was lying on the ground, the robber took his service revolver out of its holster and left with the suitcase of money.

The driver of the money transporter said in court that he wrote down the time when his colleague left the market. When he looked up again, his colleague was lying on the ground, the robber’s gun “at the back of his head”. He also spoke of a Kalashnikov.

The evidence gathered so far in the trial has shown that an assault rifle of this make was also found in a burned-out suspected getaway vehicle after a money transporter was attacked at Cologne-Bonn Airport. Drach is also accused of this attack, as well as two other acts in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main.

In addition to particularly serious robbery in four cases, the 62-year-old is also accused of attempted murder. Because in two cases he is said to have shot money messengers and seriously injured them. In addition to Drach, an alleged accomplice has also been charged.

In 1996, Drach kidnapped the heirs of the Hamburg tobacco company Reemtsma and only released him for ransom. He was sentenced to fourteen and a half years in prison for the crime.