Up to five kilos of coke

Huge drug ring uncovered in the Innviertel region

Rieder detectives made a huge catch (symbolic image)

(Bild: LPD Wien)

Several front companies, smuggling by motorcycle, train or manipulated car - this is how six suspects are said to have operated a huge drug ring, smuggling and selling kilos of narcotics from Switzerland to Austria. A train ticket put the investigators on their trail.

It's a find that doesn't happen very often: narcotics officers from the Ried police, in cooperation with the Upper Austrian The police in Ried, in cooperation with the Upper Austrian State Office of Criminal Investigation, the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation and the Coordinated Criminal Investigation Services of Wels-Land, Vöcklabruck and Grieskirchen, uncovered a drug ring of dizzying proportions. The professionally organized group is said to have imported up to five kilos of cocaine and up to 30 kilos of cannabis from Switzerland and sold them at a profit.

Involvement in home invasion
Two men from Rieder, aged 29 and 24, are said to have been mainly responsible for organizing the smuggling. The two were last registered at bogus addresses in Switzerland. The 29-year-old described himself as the head of the organization and the "financial manager". He is not only said to have been the mastermind behind the drug smuggling, but also the person who ordered the home invasion of former ÖVP state councillor Josef Fill in the district of Ried last summer. He is said to have scouted out the crime scene and given tips.

It all started with a train ticket
Tips and confidential information from an informant finally put the police on the right track. A train ticket to Switzerland, which the officers found on one of the suspects, also led the police to the drug ring.

24-year-old already known to the police
The 24-year-old, who had already been involved in drug dealing as the manager of a discotheque in the district of Ried, was the "soldier", the man for the rough stuff, for the "dirty business". The two had tried to cover up the smuggling with several bogus companies. 

Drug trafficking from a detached house
The family home of a 30-year-old man in Taiskirchen im Innkreis is said to have served as a hub for trafficking the substances. Up to four and a half kilos of cocaine and up to three kilos of cannabis were allegedly stored at his home. He had also trafficked himself: he is said to have put 1.3 kilos of coke and 2 kilos of weed into circulation.

Numerous bunkers discovered
Various "bunkers", i.e. drug stashes, were also unearthed: 25 kilos of cannabis were allegedly stashed in the house of a 26-year-old "wholesaler" in Senftenbach. Drugs were also stashed in the apartment of a 23-year-old "runner" from Ried, who is said to have sold 1.6 kilos of cocaine, 1.5 kilos of cannabis and other quantities of ketamine, and drugs were also discovered in a house in St. Georgen near Obernberg during the course of the investigation. A 27-year-old unstable man from Rieder was also arrested for drug trafficking.

Arrests already in December
The criminal organization had already come to the attention of the investigating authorities last July, just a few months after they are said to have started their activities in December 2022. In December 2023, as has only now become known, there was a coordinated operation in which a total of nine people were arrested. Around eight kilograms of herbal cannabis, approx. 170 grams of cocaine, a car and a small truck used to smuggle narcotics from Switzerland to Austria were seized.

Successful cooperation
The six suspects are being held in various prisons. A total of 14 suspects were arrested. Of these, eleven were remanded in custody and transferred to the prisons in Ried, Wels, Linz and Hallein. In addition, more than 105 consumers were identified and reported to the police. In close cooperation with the Upper Austrian Criminal Police Office, a 32-year-old Italian national operating in Basel was also identified as a drug dealer and accomplice of the 24-year-old and the 29-year-old.