"Not yet experienced"

“Cocaine confession”: Croatian supplied Kufstein

The flourishing trade (symbolic image on the left) brought the Croatian to court.(Bild: Markus Stegmayr)

An accused Croatian man admitted on Monday at Innsbruck Regional Court that he and his accomplices had brought 29 kilos of cocaine from his home country to Tyrol. He was given an unconditional prison sentence, not least because of a relevant previous conviction.

In view of the sensitive subject of cocaine, the trial was unusually short. This was because the accused had already made a full and partly excessive confession during the investigations.

"It was a real life confession that I have never experienced to this extent in my career so far," said the defense lawyer. The 34-year-old and a total of five accomplices were targeted by the public prosecutor.

The quantities that the men had brought from Croatia and Slovenia to Tyrol between the beginning of 2020 and June 2024 were enormous. It is said to have been around 29 kilos of cocaine and 25 kilos of herbal cannabis, most of which was sold in the Kufstein area, where the accused also lived.

The man from Unterland had to answer to the Innsbruck Regional Court.(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Everything was discovered despite "crypto cell phones"
To disguise their activities, the men used "crypto cell phones", i.e. cell phones with encrypted data that were actually tap-proof. In this supposed security, they generally communicated very openly about their business and plans.

I'm very sorry about everything, I would never do it again.

Der Angeklagte beim Prozess

"I am very sorry for everything, I would never do it again," the defendant said remorsefully to the judge and the lay assessors. The final sentence was 4.5 years' unconditional imprisonment. The Croatian had already spent three years in prison in 2014 for smaller quantities of cocaine. He apparently did not learn any lessons from this.