Student Caught with 360 Grams of Weed from the Darknet

Police investigators in Augsburg reported a milestone in an ongoing investigation into drug trafficking in the region. The investigation, according to Friedberg police, began in early 2017, but the dealer(s) had been selling drugs far before the start of the investigation. In what appeared to have been the first arrest in the “complex” case, Friedberg police arrested a 16-year-old school student for ordering drugs from the darknet.

According to Friedberg police investigators, the 16-year-old in custody had used drugs for some time. He started selling the drugs and had allegedly turned a good profit until his activities placed him under investigation. He started ordering amphetamines and marijuana on the darknet for resale, investigators said. Although, in the Spring, law enforcement lacked evidence that connected the student to a small scale drug operation.

The operation, if it could even fit the definition of the word, grew until the operation involved a “large number” of targets. The police made their first breakthrough when they caught the student with 40 grams of marijuana. The arrest was only temporary, however. Officers released the kid in furtherance of the investigation.

Friedberg police investigators later obtained a warrant for the suspect’s house. The house, of course, belonged to his parents. When police raided the suspect’s home, the discovered a significant amount of evidence. While they did not find any amphetamine, they seized what the news called a “half kilogram of marijuana.” They found 360 grams of marijuana. They also found and seized almost 6,000 euros. The money, police said, was from drug sales.

Apparently, though, the “youthful age saved him from examination.” His arrest, through methods unaware to the public, led the arrest of another suspect in Augsburg. This suspect, a middleman, had ordered 100 grams of cannabis (presumably through the darknet, but somehow in connection to the previously arrested student). This arrest caused Friedberg investigators to call for additional support in the so-called “complex” case. They mentioned that the remaining suspects were mostly consumers, though.

Investigators gave no reason as to why different members of the same group of young drug traffickers placed their own orders on darknet marketplaces. This could be, and likely is, a situation very similar to Operation Tiger. In New Zealand’s Operation Tiger, law enforcement targeted a group of young drug dealers who had ordered, on a routine basis, drugs from the darknet. They then sold the drugs to similar or the same groups of schoolchildren. While incredibly coincidental, the separate drug dealers had no knowledge of each other, the authors reported.