Accomplice from Iraq

Drugs sold in Lower Austria: Priest (38) confesses

(Bild: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT)

After a 38-year-old priest in Lower Austria was busted for producing methamphetamine for resale, he has now confessed to the police.

Police spokesman Stefan Loidl also announced on Tuesday that the second suspect is a 30-year-old Iraqi from Vienna. The man had partially confessed. Both persons have been remanded in custody.

While the 38-year-old had been working in the diocese of St. Pölten since 2021, the possible accomplice is unlikely to be a person from church circles, as ORF Niederösterreich also reported. The case had come to light the previous week and a house search ordered by the Krems public prosecutor's office was carried out in the vicarage concerned. Drug precursors and laboratory equipment were discovered and seized

Drugs produced until the police intervened
According to initial findings, not all of the necessary steps in the production of crystal meth had been completed. The activities are therefore likely to have remained at an experimental stage until the police intervened.

Priest "relieved of duty"
The priest was "immediately relieved of his duties in the diocese of St. Pölten" and "prohibited from any pastoral activity in the diocese", according to a statement from the diocese of St. Pölten. The man of God is a priest of the Archdiocese of Warsaw, which for its part has held out the prospect of further steps.