German Court Orders Retrial in Cocaine Case Involving Corrupt Prosecutor

The Federal Court of Justice overturned the sentencing of a drug trafficker after revelations of a prosecutor's alleged ties to a cocaine cartel.

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Leipzig has overturned the sentencing of a drug trafficker convicted of smuggling 16 tons of cocaine, citing the involvement of a corrupt prosecutor in the original trial.
The prosecutor, who served as the lead representative in the 2023 trial, is accused of leaking confidential information to the cocaine cartel and has been in custody since October 2024 on charges of bribery and breach of official secrets.
The court ruled that the original trial failed to adequately consider the trafficker's claims that the prosecutor was a mole for the cartel, necessitating a reassessment of the sentence by a different chamber of the Hanover Regional Court.
While the trafficker's conviction for drug trafficking remains intact, his defense argued that the prosecutor's misconduct compromised the fairness of the trial.
Parallel investigations into the prosecutor, now led by the Osnabrück public prosecutor's office, continue after the case was reassigned by the Justice Minister.