By Karin Hendrich and Anne Losensky
After decrypting data from the Encrochat messenger service, the investigators also got Mario K. (50) from Lichtenberg online – known as “uglybuffalo”.
The head of the sports club and ex-wrestler is said to have traded hashish and marijuana in April and May 2020 with an unknown person who has not yet been identified (chat name: “solidking”).
“I was just a messenger, not a drug dealer,” he claims before the district court. And tells his version of the story that began with Corona. And the dilemma for sport too: closed halls, unemployed trainers, missing membership fees… “I had financial obligations. Also existential fears.”
The solution to the problems was provided by “a tall, well-dressed gentleman”. Who suggested to him in a bar full of corona deniers (“but I’m not one of them …”) “to drive money back and forth”.
Today he sees how simple he was! But at that time the “time of crisis” persuaded him. He allegedly only got 50 euros per trip. At the end handed over in an envelope. “I didn’t even count.”
He was not involved in the planning and business itself. “I also had no idea about the value of the drugs.”
He claims to have received a total of 2,550 euros for his courier trips. “I only realized that it was wrong when I was arrested. A catastrophe what I did to myself and my parents. But as an athlete, I’m used to fighting.”
He calls it “the great wave” and hopes “it leaves behind only foam and no devastation”.
Continued: Wednesday (November 23).