The Schöffengericht Konstanz court in Radolfzell, Germany recently convicted a 36-year-old man to a suspended sentence of two years, 120 hours of community service, and a bundle of probationary requirements for ordering 125 grams of darkweb amphetamines two years ago, in 2017.
The law enforcement traced the man after the infamous deep web platform AlphaBay was busted in the summer of 2017. Subsequent raids on two platform employees in Dortmund revealed an address label for the 36-year-old culprit from Radolfzell. The handwritten label also indicated the contents for the shipment: 125 grams of amphetamine plus seven grams of cocaine. Fortunately enough for the accused, the cocaine charge was dropped since it was a “present” from the sellers and not a specifically ordered item.
None the less, the raid on the 36-year-old man revealed other drugs. Police entered the culprit’s residence at the start of 2018, finding small amounts of marijuana and hashish, as well as several synthetic drugs and 20 tablets of a strong prescription analgesic. He claimed that he had received the strong, morphine-containing painkillers from a friend with cancer, but it didn’t convince the judge. The defendant had no choice but to confess to illegal drug consumption and possession.
The evidence presented in the District Court of Radolfzell was rather thin. Mostly because of the nature of the court which seeks to expedite criminal cases and private lawsuits through accelerated procedures, the so-called “fast judges.” More so, no witnesses have been presented in the courthouse against the accused. Because, according to the presiding judge, the discovery of the darkweb platforms had drawn an extremely high investigation effort for the processing police officers in Dortmund. Therefore, they would not have time to travel through the country constantly, to testify before numerous local courts. Also important, no specific financial transactions were presented since the accused paid in cryptocurrencies which are almost untraceable.
Luckily for the accused, the judge dismissed the cocaine citation because the shippers packed the seven grams of cocaine without request, for customer loyalty as a “treat,” a common practice in illegal drug trafficking. The man reiterated the fact that he did indeed consume stimulating narcotics to “compensate” his introverted type, but never did cocaine out of principle. Upon hearing such an apparent logical contradiction, the judge replied:
“It could have also been rat poison, what you whistled in there!”
The final verdict of a one-year prison sentence was suspended over two years on “favorable social prognosis,” taking into consideration the fact that the accused “harmed mostly himself.” On top of the two-year prison sentence, he’s required to take periodic urine tests, drug rehabilitation, and 120 hours of community service.
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