The public prosecutor’s office in Hanover stands accused of ignoring indications that one of its employees, a State prosecutor named as “Yashar G” by German media, was allegedly passing on confidential information to one of the biggest cocaine-smuggling operations in Germany history.
As German lawyer Raban Funk told public broadcaster NDR, an anonymous source had already informed G’s supervisor in June of 2020 about the accused prosecutor’s alleged criminal misconduct. This information was reportedly ignored without consequence.
“It was an open rumour in the milieu that there was a public prosecutor who was releasing information. Every [criminal] faction I was in contact with told me about it”, Funk said.
He said the public prosecutor’s office should have reacted much earlier. “Informally, the prosecutor’s office knew about the allegations since the year 2020,” Funk alleged in his NDR interview.
Brussels Signal contacted Funk to find out more but had not received a reply at the time of writing.
Despite a police search of his apartment in 2022, G was allowed to conduct a trial against the cocaine smugglers for whom he was allegedly working on the side.
In December 2024 the German Federal Court of Justice overturned the conviction of one of the smugglers – represented by lawyer Funk – who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The trial against G, a German of Iranian descent, was set to start in Hanover on April 23 under strict security precautions.
He has been accused of 14 counts of alleged bribery, breach of official secrecy and obstruction of justice in office.
It was alleged that he passed on confidential information about police investigations to an international cocaine-smuggling ring for several years.
In February 2021, police in Hamburg discovered 16 tonnes of cocaine in the city’s port with an estimated market value of €450 million. It marked the biggest illicit drugs discovery in Europe so far.
Following that, German police conducted extensive investigations into the cocaine-smuggling operation that they said could be traced back to Colombia.
In the spring of 2021, law enforcement officers planned to simultaneously arrest 32 suspects, although only 20 suspects were apprehended.
The rest had reportedly fled to Dubai, Albania, Morocco and other places. Among them was the suspected ringleader, who at the time of writing was still at large.
G now stood accused of allegedly passing on information about the planned bust to the drug smugglers.
For his services, he allegedly received a monthly payment of €5,000 plus a €5,000 bonus for especially valuable information.
In November 2022, police officers searched G’s office and private apartment and allegedly found hundreds of pictures of confidential documents including photos of the mission plans for the drugs bust.
It was after this search that G conducted the trial against the cocaine smugglers who were allegedly paying him.
He was finally arrested in October, 2024 and has been awaiting trial in custody.
Investigators have allegedly also found evidence that he was informing other drug smugglers about ongoing investigations.
Those recipients allegedly included his brother-in-law – a convicted drug dealer – and the Hanover chapter of the Hells Angels.
Brussels Signal contacted the Hanover Public Prosecutor’s Office, but they declined to comment on the matter. The Ministry of Justice of Lower Saxony, Germany, has said that the entire affair was now “subject to an extensive internal review”.
