The photos in the nude show the accused waving thick wads of money at the camera in his old homeland, the Dominican Republic. Of course, it’s Dominican pesos, not euros. Nevertheless, the pictures in the trial serve as an indication that the accused was the “boss” of a drug gang who is said to have smuggled a total of 200 kilos of cocaine with a street sales value of around 16 million euros to Europe – and here mainly to Upper Austria – in ten years.
The narcotic drug was hidden in the rods of wheeled suitcases and souvenirs (drum-shaped key rings) and was shipped by air. Colleagues then picked up the “goods” from the airport. Linz was the hub of illegal trade, as the investigators found out.
The defendant denies having lived a life of luxury in the Caribbean and was a drug lord. The money in the photos comes from customers he has supplied to, as an employee of a drugstore in the Dominican Republic, he claims. He only admits selling 200 grams of cocaine.
It was planned at the hearing yesterday to hear seven witnesses. Some of them have already been convicted as accomplices and are in custody. They should confirm what they had already told the police. But similar to the first accomplice trial in the previous week, the statements in court no longer sounded as burdensome as they did during the preliminary investigation.
One witness claimed that the accused had lived a life of wealth. He only heard that the accused’s mother had bought a piece of land to “plant plantains”. But he could not say whether the money had come from the defendant. In general, he has “no reason” to “say anything” against the alleged drug lord, “I have no problems with him.” The presiding judge warned the witness against giving false evidence in court. The witness’s reply: “I can only say what I saw, what happened behind my back, I don’t know.” The fact that the defendant’s name appears “constantly” in his interrogation protocol has to do with the fact that the Police officers had “constantly used” this name, the witness replied in the affirmative when asked by the defense attorney.
A judgment, as initially planned, did not come about yesterday. The trial was adjourned.
Source: Nachrichten
