Drug ring trial begins in Stadelheim prison: pastor admits cell phone smuggling

“Spice” by letter and a pastor who is said to have helped with drug trafficking: A trial against a suspected drug trafficking ring in the Munich-Stadelheim correctional facility has begun in Munich. The scam: Paper that was soaked with the synthetic cannabinoid “Spice” was sent to prison - sometimes disguised as a love letter.

The agreements are also said to have taken place via smuggled cell phones. And this is said to have been smuggled into the prison by a Muslim theologian who was employed as a pastor in the prison and was not checked during his visits.

One motif: weight loss injection

He also admitted this before the Munich I regional court. “I did it because I was under immense debt,” said the 37-year-old. He had BaföG debts and didn't earn enough from the Free State of Bavaria. He also suffered from burnout because he was solely responsible for 600 Muslim prisoners.

And then the weight loss injection that he used because he was overweight was expensive. “Physically, I’m not a top model,” he said. “I wanted to finance weight loss injections.”

He denied that he had knowingly smuggled a drug-laced letter into the prison. He assumed it was “a sex letter”.

Two other defendants also admitted their involvement in the drug deals at the start of the trial. One person stated that he primarily wanted to make his time in prison easier for his brother, who was sentenced to prison, and so he got him drugs.

The public prosecutor's office accuses the men of, among other things, gang trafficking in narcotics. The prison chaplain is also charged with bribery. The regional court has scheduled a total of nine days of hearings until the end of October.