On 10 November, Münster Regional Court convicted four men from the Borken district of gang-related drug trafficking and imposed prison terms.[1][2][3] The 39-year-old ringleader from Ahaus received 5 years and 4 months, while the other three members received 3 years and 9 months, 3 years, and a 2-year suspended term.[1][2] At the time of reporting, only one of the four men was already in custody.[3] The defendants were two men from Ahaus and two men from Gronau, aged between 28 and 43.[1][2] Several defendants confessed to at least part of the offences during the trial, and the verdict rested on those confessions.[1][2] The confessions mitigated the court’s sentences.[2] The trial opened on 19 August in Münster, where three defendants already announced they would speak and admit at least some of the acts.[4]
About three years earlier the four men had begun growing cannabis in Ahaus and then dealt in marijuana and other drugs.[1][2] One drug depot in Ahaus was disguised as the premises of an MPU driving-fitness counselling service, where investigators say the gang stored kilograms of marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy.[1][2][3] On one plantation police found an irrigation system, seven fans and 327 harvested cannabis plants, according to the regional court.[4] Prosecutors say the group earned at least 900,000 euros from selling cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy, and demanded confiscation of the proceeds.[4] Police also found lists documenting the drug trade on the mobile phone of the ringleader, who allegedly organised the operations.[2] Some of the drugs were also consumed by the defendants themselves; one was caught by police driving with cocaine.[1][2]
Police had arrested the four men from the Borken district in February 2026.[1][2] A joint drug investigation by Essen customs investigators and Münster police under the Münster prosecution had run against suspects from Ahaus and Gronau since November 2024.[5] Four arrest warrants and many searches were executed on 19 February 2026 by more than 170 customs and police officers.[5] During that investigation officers had already seized cannabis and cocaine totalling in the double-digit kilograms and dismantled an illegal cannabis plantation in Gronau.[5] At the February raids officers secured several further kilograms of cannabis together with amphetamine and cocaine plus other evidence.[5] The indictment charged the men with 21 offences of gang drug dealing.[4]
