Overview
- Customs and state police stopped a delivery van at the A3 Medenbach rest area on October 16 and recovered about 51 kilograms of cocaine concealed in the double bottom and walls of a wooden cabinet.
- Two suspects, aged 27 and 37, were arrested at the scene and placed in pretrial detention after a Darmstadt court issued arrest warrants on October 17.
- Authorities say the pair had undertaken a procurement trip from the Netherlands and intended to move the drugs to a warehouse in the Offenbach district.
- A search of that warehouse uncovered additional similarly constructed cabinets believed to be used for drug transports, and further residential searches were carried out in Frankfurt, Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis and Marburg.
- The 37-year-old is accused of two prior imports totaling roughly 41 kilograms of cocaine found by Hamburg customs in January and July concealed in pineapple shipments from Costa Rica, with the joint probe by customs, HLKA and prosecutors ongoing.