Overview

• Judges sentenced the defendants to six, seven, and seven and a half years in prison for roles tied to the Cologne-Kalk trafficking network.
• The court found that one 22-year-old gave the crucial tip that enabled the robbery of 350 kilograms of marijuana from a Hürth storage site.
• A 25-year-old, deemed firmly embedded in the gang and already significantly preconvicted, received seven and a half years for aiding large-scale cannabis dealing and possession.
• Another 22-year-old drew six years after the court weighed that he had been brutally assaulted on the gang leader’s orders by Dutch enforcers seeking the stolen drugs’ whereabouts.
• Announcement of the verdict was delayed for roughly five hours when an unattended suitcase prompted partial evacuation of the courthouse before the owner came forward and it was deemed harmless.