The main defendant was sentenced to nine years in prison today, and several members of his family are also in prison. The judgments are not yet final.
As court spokesman Peter Egger told APA, the man’s son was sentenced to 6.5 years, his ex-wife and daughter to three years in prison. Four other suspects received sentences ranging from 2.5 to 7.5 years. According to prosecutors, the accused are said to have been members of an international organization that smuggled Captagon tablets on a large scale from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia via the EU.
The procedure involved 13.8 million pills with an estimated sales value of 40 million euros. The transhipment point was apparently a pizzeria in Bürmoos, a small town in the Flachgau region. The drugs – hidden in the cavities of rolls of plastic film – were first transported by sea to Belgium and from there to Bürmoos.
Was repacked in Austria. The tablets have now disappeared into industrial pizza ovens, washing machines and other electrical appliances and were thus shipped to Saudi Arabia. The long detour was chosen because imports from the EU in Saudi Arabia are clearly less controlled than imports of goods from the Middle East.
Eleven men and three women between the ages of 27 and 54, mostly from the Arab world and Lebanon respectively, were eventually charged with drug trafficking and involvement in a criminal organization. Many are related to each other. Some of them lived in the city and state of Salzburg before they were arrested. In terms of citizenship, these are six Austrians, three Syrians, one Lebanese, one Belgian, one German, one Turkish and one Hungarian. One suspect stayed away from the hearing. Apart from the operator of the pizzeria, who admitted part of the allegations, all of the accused have pleaded not guilty.
The process started in mid-December 2021 and was scheduled to last until January 26th. But on January 12th, it had to be adjourned because the associate judge of the jury senate fell ill. Almost two weeks later, the process was continued with a new judge, but had to be started again from the beginning because of the change.
connection with terrorist attacks
Even before the trial began in the fall, the secret liaison between the key witness and the interpreter who had translated during the investigation had caused a stir. A number of pages of minutes therefore had to be retranslated by another interpreter.
Captagon was developed in the 1960s as a drug to treat e.g. B. ADHD to be used. It contains the active ingredient fenetylline, which is considered an addictive drug. The effect is similar to that of amphetamine and acts directly on the central nervous and cardiovascular systems because it breaks through the blood-brain barrier. According to the police, this drug is also often associated with terrorist attacks, since the active ingredient has a stimulating effect and makes the user appear fearless, insensitive to pain, etc. The side effects can range up to death.
Source: Nachrichten
