Drug traffickers unscrupulously conduct their criminal deals via platforms such as Telegram.symbolImage: Roman Budnyi / Getty
Drug traffickers unscrupulously conduct their criminal deals via platforms like Telegram. They rely on willing helpers, old methods and new tricks to get their expensive poison to people.
Henry Habegger / ch media
The woman was arrested by the police in Zurich on a June evening in 2020. As the Zurich-Limmat public prosecutor later stated in the indictment, she was traveling with her Alfa Romeo as a courier for an “ordering and delivery service for drugs on Telegram”. In the car, among other things, she had two small portions of cocaine in Minigrip bags ready for delivery. At her place of residence, narcotics such as cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, amphetamine and LSD worth 24,000 francs were seized, which she intended to deliver to customers in the Zurich region and partly consume herself.
From the Zurich public prosecutor’s indictment: Extract from a list of drug portions that were confiscated from a courier. She worked for a Telegram drug network.Image: screenshot
After 282 days in prison, the Romanian woman was sentenced by the district court in March 2021 to 20 months conditionally and a fine of 500 francs for drug offenses. The court ordered the destruction of the several dozen seized plastic bags that contained various types of drugs ready for delivery.
The woman had worked for the drug network that called itself “Vitamintaube”. This was one of those Telegram groups that sells all kinds of drugs in Switzerland. From cannabis and amphetamines to cocaine and fentanyl – all kinds of narcotics can be ordered through publicly accessible channels, CH Media research shows.
After-work courier allows themselves to be hired by strangers
For each “unit” she delivered, the Zurich courier received first 5 and then 10 francs from the drug network. The woman collected the money from the buyers and passed it on to her unknown clients in the form of Bitcoins.
In January 2023, another courier was convicted in the same “Vitamintaube” case: a young entrepreneur from French-speaking Switzerland who got into economic difficulties and became an after-work drug courier. He was hired via Telegram and earned around 22,000 francs from the courier trips. He didn’t know who his clients were either. For him, too, the drugs came pre-portioned by post, and the courier fee came in cash or Bitcoin. The man showed remorse and received a conditional sentence of 2 years, plus an unconditional fine of 180 daily rates of 80 francs each.
While the after-work couriers are caught or stuck in traffic, the dealers and the masterminds themselves remain in the dark. The business continues, the quantities of drugs distributed in Switzerland are increasing, as is the drug misery.
Telegram cocaine dealer delivers to “the whole of German-speaking Switzerland”. One gram costs 100 francs, 10 grams costs 650. Image: Screenshot Telegram
In the spring and summer of 2024, for example, an alleged successor channel to the “Vitamintaube” on Telegram offered kilos of cocaine in a “promotion”: a maximum of 3 kilos per customer was available for 33,000 francs. The major dealers advertised a special service: They offered to “safely store” the kilos of cocaine they had purchased for the customer and to gradually deliver it to them “on demand” in the desired quantity. This throughout Switzerland. “You only pay 50 francs for shipping costs,” the gangsters praised their service.
Dead mailboxes and “My Post 24” machines
On another Telegram channel, an agent warns his customers about shipments from abroad because there is a risk of “a house search during customs checks.” Anyone who still orders from abroad is “strongly” recommended to use an “anonymous address” or a “dead mailbox”. In other words, a hiding place or storage location that is only known to the sender and the recipient of the goods. An old secret service method, also popular with drug traffickers.
Classic: cocaine in a Minigrip bag.symbolImage: Peter Dazeley / Getty
As an alternative, this drug trafficker recommends delivering the illegal goods to a “Phished or Faked MyPost24 Packstation”. So to a post office parcel machine.
Drug delivery via “My Post 24” machines seems to be popular: there is always talk of it on the relevant Telegram channels. Almost as often as the SBB machines as pumps for cryptocurrency.
In the drug channels, intermediaries also offer “cracked” “My Post 24” accounts with which users can supposedly register for the postal service. This makes it possible to send and receive anonymously.
On one of the channels, a drug broker wrote: “Do you want a hacked Mypost24 account? Pay with crypto and receive your login details instantly.” Anyone who buys five of these “hacked accounts” will receive a 10 percent discount on the unit price of 140 francs in Bitcoin. Cash payment “at the meeting” is also possible.
Post: “We are not aware of any such actions”
Are “My Post 24” accounts being cracked and used for drug trafficking, as the dealers claim? “We are not aware of any such actions, including any abusive activities like the ones you mentioned,” says Post media spokesman Stefan Dauner when asked. «Incidentally, there are no “My Post 24” accounts. Anyone who would like to use the services of a ‘My Post 24’ machine at the post office can do so via the post office customer login with SwissID.”
However, the criminal scene always seems to be one step ahead. The pullers and big earners remain unrecognized so far. If anything, it’s the little Telegram fish that get caught. (aargauerzeitung.ch)
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