Baden-Württemberg: Investigators inform about the "biggest find of crystal meth"

It is cheap and quickly addictive: according to the police in Heilbronn, the largest amount of the drug crystal meth in Germany to date has been caught online. Now the investigators inform about the case.

Heilbronn (dpa/lsw) – A clear blow to drug crime: According to their own statements, investigators in Heilbronn have confiscated the largest amount of the drug crystal meth in Germany to date. At a press conference on Friday (2 p.m.) in Heilbronn, the police headquarters and the public prosecutor want to provide information about the exact scope and the suspects in the case.

According to the information, intensive investigations preceded the access to the drugs. The substance methamphetamine had already been confiscated in the past few weeks, said a police spokeswoman. The investigators initially did not provide any further information, such as the exact amount of drugs.

Synthetically produced crystal meth refers to a crystal form of methamphetamine, which in turn is a modification of the stimulant amphetamine. Ecstasy, which has been used as a party drug since the 1990s, is also derived from amphetamine. Meth has a higher addiction potential than other illegal drugs, but at the same time it is quite cheap.

It was not until September that customs informed about an extremely large find of the drug in the port of Hamburg. Investigators seized 182 kilograms of crystal meth in May of this year. It is the largest single find in this country to date, it said. In order not to endanger the investigation, the public was only informed later. The drugs were laboriously hidden in water treatment machines. An X-ray control revealed suspicious structures. Customs estimated the black market value of the drug at around 14 million euros.

Another hiding place was chosen by drug dealers in cargo shipments that fell into the hands of customs at Munich Airport. The drugs in cargo shipments from Laos were hidden on hangers disguised as instant coffee or tea, customs said in June. The largest delivery – 1.5 kilos of methamphetamine – was found in a freight shipment at the end of April, where it was hidden on wooden hangers.

Drug dealers are always creative: Crystal meth has already been smuggled in colored pencil packaging, as investigators at Cologne/Bonn Airport discovered in November 2021.