In summer 2012, out of a sense of adventure and passion for collecting, the defendant decided to get in contact with the firearms trafficking scene on the internet. He therefore created himself an account in the German Darknet forum “DiDW” (Germany in the Deepweb) under the pseudonym “rico”. He made his first contacts with firearms dealers and subsequently illegally purchased his first firearms. Therefore he regularly went abroad, including to Slovakia, Czech republic and Switzerland, and received several firearms from users he had met before on the Darknet forum. From time to time, the defendant’s passion for collecting weapons increasingly developed into an interest in the financial aspect of dealing with firearms. In order to finance further purchases of firearms and to generate a substantial source of income, the defendant, who was unemployed at that time, decided, at the latest at the beginning of 2016, to repeatedly sell weapons on the Darknet under his pseudonym "rico". He therefore purchased more than ten firearms, including some firearms of the model “Glock” from the Darknet user “Hyena”. In May 2016 the defendant even decided to move to Marburg, Germany due to better connection to his business partners in Eastern Europe from Marburg. The firearms were stored and hidden in an underground depot (box) in the middle of the woods nearby a highway (Köln-Ost).

The defendant sold several weapons to interested customers who approached him via the Darknet. Amongst his customers was also 18-years old DiDW user “Maurächer”, who expressed interest in purchasing a weapon for self-defence reasons. “Rico” and “Maurächer” exchanged several encrypted messages via the messenger service “Bitmessenger” and finally agreed on a price of € 4,000.00 for a Glock 17 Gen. 4 including ammunition, “rico” had before purchased from “Hyena” for € 1,600.00 in Czech Republic. The weapon originally was distributed by a Slovak branch of Glock and was sold, via other companies to the Slovak company T., which converted it into a so called “Flobert” weapon, and then somehow was converted back into a sharp weapon by further costumers, until it reached “Hyena”.

In May 2016 “rico” and “Maurächer” finally met up at a bus terminal in Marburg where the defendant alias “rico” handed over the weapon Glock 17 Gen. 4, calibre 9x19 mm and about 200 rounds of ammunition of the brand “Sellier & Bellot” to “Maurächer”. “Maurächer” told him he needed the weapon for self-defence, as he recently moved to a dangerous neighbourhood. The defendant had no idea of “Maurächer’s” plan to kill several people, nor did he expect it. However, he was aware of the lack of trustworthiness of people operating in the Darknet forums. The possible dangers of selling firearms to people without a legal permit however were ignored by the defendant, for the sake of his own financial profit.

Ten days later, “Maurächer” again contacted the defendant in order to purchase more ammunition for the total price of € 350,00. They met once again at the same bus terminal and exchanged the money in cash and the ammunition. “Maurächer” told the defendant he may “shoot some foreigners” with the additional ammunition and later on said this was a joke, as the defendant repeatedly warned him not to fool around like that.

With the acquired Glock 17 Gen. 4, 18 years old mentally unstable "Maurächer" carried out a mass shooting at the Olympia shopping center in Munich, Germany on July 22, 2016. Nine people were killed and several injured. The attacker killed himself after the shooting. According to his own information, “rico” collapsed right after hearing in the media “Maurächer” was the one who carried out the mass shooting.

Anyhow, “rico” did not stop dealing with firearms on the Darknet. Undercover investigators used an Darknet account of the user “sectorplantone” that had taken over, got into contact with the defendant via the Darknet and expressed interest concerning a firearm purchase. The undercover agent and “rico” agreed on a fully automatic rifle VZ 58 and a semi-automatic Glock 17 Gen. 3 for a total price of € 8,000.00. Both agreed to meet up personally on August 16^th, 2016 at the Marburg bus terminal, where finally the arrest of the defendant took place and three weapons were seized.

The defendant was found guilty of intentional unlawful trafficking, transfer, carrying and commercial possession of firearms, weapons of war and ammunition in several cases in combination with negligent homicide in nine cases and negligent bodily injury in five cases. He was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment and the confiscation of proceeds of crime amounting to € 25,400.00 was ordered by the Munich Regional Court. The Supreme Court (BGH) upheld the judgement of the Munich Regional Court.

The parallel proceeding against the provider of the dark-web market place can be found here.