Düsseldorf regional court suspends arrest warrant against real estate agent

In the trial against a real estate agent for trafficking tons of cocaine worth 100 million euros, the Düsseldorf regional court surprisingly decided to release the defendant. The court suspended the arrest warrant, a court spokeswoman said. The 34-year-old must therefore pay a deposit of 250,000 euros, report to the police every day and hand in his passport.

According to the indictment, the broker and four other men are said to have imported twelve tons of cocaine worth 100 million euros from South America since 2016 and also traded marijuana and firearms. During the trial, however, it became clear that large-scale cocaine trafficking could not be proven beyond doubt.

The conversations conducted via crypto cell phones could have been decrypted, but the devices were used by several people. It is therefore not possible to determine with certainty who conducted the crucial discussions.

Some of the conversations were also conducted in Serbian, said one of the defense lawyers. The 34-year-old doesn't speak Serbian. The broker had confessed to trading in kilos of marijuana. His 31-year-old wife admitted in the trial that he had passed on 12.8 kilos of marijuana and received 45,000 euros for it.

During a raid at the end of February, special forces searched the defendant's house in Ratingen near Düsseldorf and arrested him. The search for the four suspected accomplices continues. The verdict is to be announced next Tuesday. The judge had stated that the 34-year-old could expect a sentence of between almost five and four years in prison.