While the authorities continue trying to auction off the 1,197 bitcoins seized from his 10 wallets, his lawyer, Stefan Costabel, is pouring over the many boxes of investigation files, preparing for what may be his hardest defense ever. "The police can make hundreds of mistakes. Seit Ende Februar 2015 müssen alle Kunden von Shiny Flakes bangen. The depots served merely as dead drops; often, the packages were addressed to someone other than the person who picked them up, with a second bogus party listed as the return address. Drogenversand "Shiny Flakes": Shopbetreiber Maximilian S. kündigt Aussage an – Nachrichten aus Leipzig - Leipziger Zeitung Leipziger Internet-Zeitung Aktuelles in eigener Sache: Neue Website online 29. Leipzig Lokales Leipziger Online-Drogendealer „Shiny Flakes“ inspiriert Netflix-Serie 20:38 28.05.2019 Lokales Start am 31. They had nothing on him until they were in his room, which was his warehouse and his headquarters. An innocent resident of the same apartment building in Gohlis was also observed and suspected of being the operator of the Shiny Flakes drug delivery business, even though the police had succeeded in taking a picture of Maximilian at "his" package station and in following him back to his apartment building. A large part of the investigation's success though was due to more classic police work, especially the use of surveillance. "Run for your lives" appeared on March 3rd, when the CEO of Shiny Flakes was already sitting in jail. In the presentation that follows, the police portray themselves like they're on an episode of Crimewatch. What's clear is that Moritz is a highly intelligent nerd with arrogant tendencies. Yet Shiny was still careful when having a one-on-one conversation with Chris. Am vergangenen Freitag nahmen Ermittler in Leipzig den Betreiber des Drogen-Versandshops "Shiny Flakes" fest. The starting point for the authorities' investigation was a package with insufficient postage that didn't find its way back to the (nonexistent) sender and was opened at some point. A few of the drugs seized from Maximilian's room at the press conference about his arrest. It's certain that Maximilian, should he be guilty of running Shiny Flakes, nonetheless operated with caution and sophistication for a long time and safeguarded himself in many respects. The presser consisted of a few speeches—from Leipzig police officers and city prosecutors—and then the bigger presentation of the seized drugs, which are still concealed under tablecloths. The police only needed a few days to cull the seized hard drive, which was not encrypted, before they found what they were looking for: practically all the addresses of Shiny's bulk buyers in Germany, the people who ordered kilos of drugs from him to then further distribute. Anfangs nutzte Maximilian S. laut Anklage das Darknet für seine Geschäfte. Maximilian did not even own a pocket knife. On February 24th, the authorities allowed Maximilian to meet the courier to receive 25,000 ecstasy pills, 20 kilos of hash, 10,000 doses of LSD and 27 kilos of amphetamine without incident. Max S. betrieb in seinem Kinderzimmer den Drogen-Onlineshop Shiny-Flakes - er verkaufte fast eine Tonne Drogen. And this was Maximilian's forte. These kinds of packages continuously surfaced around Leipzig. Authorities discovered these along with enormous amounts of MDMA, speed, cocaine, LSD, hash and 49,000 euros in cash, as well as digital scales and vacuum sealing machines, in his room in an apartment in Leipzig where he lived in with his mother and his stepfather. He always ordered these taxis using a cell phone he used exclusively for this purpose. Shiny-Flakes-Prozess "Kinderzimmer-Dealer" geht gegen Urteil vor Von seinem Kinderzimmer aus betrieb Max S. einen florierenden Drogen-Onlineshop. Press Images: ​Deutsche Post AG. Mehr aktuelle News aus Leipzig … But if I, the dealer, make a mistake, it's deadly.". The police say they weren't responsible and they also lack a motive for warning drug dealers about pending search warrants. Ein … The police had nothing on him online. What's more in question is why the police waited so long to take the apartment after arresting the courier. Neue Netflix-Serie: "Shiny Flakes" und die Drogen aus dem Kinderzimmer Ein Schüler verkauft aus seinem Kinderzimmer übers Internet Drogen und verdient Millionen. Coke and ketamine didn't make it into the picture. On March 10th, the police, using the information obtained on the stick, got warrants and conduct searches all over Germany. La strana carriera di Shiny Flakes si è conclusa con la confisca di 4.1 milioni di euro di droga dalla casa di sua madre. The reporters are happy to have the police teach them about the darknet. The police proudly present the confiscated goods: 50,000 hits of LSD, among others. However, his arrest will barely put a dent into dealing over the darknet. "The customers have a thing for antisocial behavior, they kept coming back to him," says Chris, who knew Shiny from a bigger German online criminal forum. But it's clear that one of Shiny's darknet profiles  was repeatedly visible online long after his arrest. Der „Kinderzimmer-Dealer“ sitzt mit knallroten Ohren auf der Anklagebank im Landgericht Leipzig und legt ein Geständnis ab. DHL became an unwitting accomplice in Shiny Flakes' drug business. Auch wenn das Urteil gegen den Betreiber des Online-Drogen-Shops „Shiny Flakes“ seit mehr als einem Jahr gesprochen ist, werden noch immer Ermittlungsverfahren gegen die Besteller eingeleitet. It's hard to imagine the amount of pressure the dealer must have been under. Now, after almost two years, Shiny Flakes is no more. Und in etwa vier Jahren dürfte der „Shiny-Flakes“-Dealer bei guter Führung auch schon wieder frei sein. It was a pretty lucky find for the authorities. Georg*, 51, drives up to a young man's apartment in the north of Leipzig, Germany, on February 26th, 2015. Then there are the supply-end problems. On Monday, August 24th, the trial of Maximilian S., the alleged operator of the online drug market Shiny Flakes, began in Leipzig. Maximilian S. verkaufte unter dem Namen "Shiny Flakes" von Leipzig aus große Mengen Rauschgift über das Netz. After discontinuing his apprenticeship in 2013, his boss was disappointed, but what triggered the rather surprising career change remains completely unclear. He started using the same package stations all the time to send out his goods. It's a routine pickup. For most visitors it just look a little bit more inviting than similar notes after police darknet operations that ​we have s​een in the past. Shiny Flakes' original dot com domain happened to be registered anew just one day after the raid at Moritz's mom's place—to a new name and address. Shiny Flakes busted! Tatvorwurf ist jeweils ein Verstoß gegen das BtMG , genauer: Erwerb von Betäubungsmittel oder gar Handeltreiben mit Betäubungsmitteln. After completing high school in Leipzig in 2011, he began an apprenticeship in an Italian restaurant, where he's remembered for being hardworking but also stiff. The authorities have elsewhere proved to not be all too tactically skilled in their investigation. The clear net and darknet dealer has been in custody at a detention center on Leimener Straße in Leipzig since February 27th. However, it is possible that when the police confiscated Moritz's laptop during the raid, he was still logged into his Bitcoin wallet. Shiny Flakes sent his goods in these kinds of packages, gladly throwing in a few gummy bears with the ecstasy. People following the case have asked how the police were able to shut down the expansively-networked drug empire so quickly. Our research over the past months has shown that investigators didn't get onto Maximilian's trail in the way they purported to do so during a press conference they gave—basically, by using their supposed cybercrime expertise—but rather were able to find him using traditional investigative measures. A successful plea to the court to try him as a juvenile after he single-handedly constructed an extremely profitable drug business currently seems unlikely. A screencapture of Shiny Flakes' webshop shortly before it was taken offline. Faced with an overwhelming amount of evidence against him, Moritz's chances in court aren't looking too good, although he has retained the experienced defense attorney, Stefan Costabel. ​. The police had nothing on him online, until they were right in his room, which served as his warehouse and his headquarters. Fall „Shiny Flakes“ - Kinderzimmer- Dealer jetzt Stoff für Netflix-Serie Leipzig – Ein Leipziger Kriminalfall wird zur Comedy-Serie. The trial of Maximilian S., the alleged operator of the online drug market Shiny Flakes, began Monday in Leipzig. A mysterious post on Shiny Flakes' dealer profile on another darknet black market now appears to be a kind of prophecy: "Dealers, run for your lives.". The seizure of 320 kilos of drugs with a market value of 4.1 million euros was one of the largest in Germany's history. The police leave with both dealers, the hard drives, and Mortiz's laptop. It was the culmination of an unprecedented career in drug dealing, which in less than two years turned the 20-year-old Mortiz* into one of the biggest online dealers in Germany, according to police. Because Moritz—who thought he was invincible and who single-handedly built up and ran his drug empire, Shiny Flakes—still lives with his mom. What's definite is that his aggressive rhetoric didn't harm his business. Shiny Flakes' career was just another, short chapter in the online war on drugs, which has only just begun. Shiny Flakes tauchte während der Dreharbeiten zur Serie plötzlich mal im Produktionsbüro auf, so erzählt Lars Montag. The longtime online dealer said Shiny had a very specific attitude and a strange sense of humor. Just a day later, on March 11th, the rumors that had been flying around for days online about the end of Shiny Flakes were finally confirmed. They also confiscate 48,000 euros in cash and an unbelievable cache of 320 kilos of all sorts of drugs, sorted, and stored on the shelves in Moritz's childhood bedroom. In Leipzig haben sich nicht nur Online-Händler angesiedelt, die legale Waren vertreiben. The supposed anonymity of online dealing has changed the profile of the successful dealer. The unlikely career of a darknet dealer ended when police confiscated 4.1 million euros worth of drugs from his childhood bedroom. ​, Responding to the authorities' proud claim that they're now basically able to do crackdowns within the darknet, Chris*—another darknet dealer who's known the accused for over a year—assuredly explains, "I don't believe that. He operated on the darknet and clearnet, advertised what he was selling openly, and felt safe—as safe as you can feel when you're selling a huge variety of illegal substances globally. Image: Myles Tweedle. If you believe the local police, nobody is out of reach of the law's eagle eyes. Two mistakes sealed Maximilian's fate. The police reveal what's under the white sheets at headquarters: boxes of speed paste, mountains of hash, pharmaceutical packages, packets of cocaine, unimaginable amounts of colorful ecstasy pills, meth, and gray-purple shimmering MDMA. He also had the tools for setting up magnetic cards to send and receive goods from the package station with hacked post accounts. ", DHL logistics hubs in Saxony like this one in Radeberg are the nodal points that the majority of Shiny Flakes' domestic and probably also international deliveries passed through. The jaw-dropping drug photo op at the press conference was able to bring an end so some of the online discussions about Shiny Flakes' whereabouts and identity. But he did have all the paraphernalia necessary for the portioning and packaging of drugs. This constituted a surprising explanation for the delayed deliveries that Shiny's customers kept complaining about, which the pseudonymous dealer had attributed to fear mongering among his buyers. "It really wasn't a typical childhood bedroom, but who knows. "Since he was an orderly person, he stored it all on shelves," an officer answers. Shiny Flakes' original dot com domain happened to be registered anew just one day after the raid at Moritz's mom's place—to a new name and address. Moritz mainly sent his packages within German-speaking countries, but some made it all the way to Indonesia, sometimes by registered mail, often to automated package stations or PO boxes, and, for bigger orders, as traceable deliveries with tracking numbers. The authorities not only found a neatly laid-out list of deliveries made since December 2013, including notes made on individual orders, they also found a document listing all of the most important logins for running his platforms. After the alleged courier, a Bulgarian called Zhivko Z., was arrested—his trial also begins in Leipzig on August 24th—an entire hour went by before a SWAT team stormed Maximilian's room. The police also neglect to explain the origin of the message on Shiny Flakes' dealer profile on Evolution. "The police can make hundreds of mistakes," another drug dealer, who's known Shiny for a while, explained regarding the pitfalls of online dealing. We will continue to report on the trial as it unfolds. Another thing that stood out to investigators was the routine nature of his deliveries. But the police weren't the only ones on Moritz's heels. Among the pills are several bulging freezer bags of high-dose, red pills of ecstasy known Burger Kings, which Shiny Flakes claimed to distribute exclusively. A small selection of the drugs found in Moritz's room: hash, speed paste, kilos of ecstasy. The amount of drugs allegedly found in his room is over 15,000 times more than what the law defines as "minor amounts." This is where the police first discovered a suspicious, undelivered package. Während eines Freigangs – S. ist nach wie vor in Haft – war er am Kölner one reporter asks. „Shiny Flakes“ vertickte Drogen aus seinem Kinderzimmer – und wird jetzt zur Netflix-Serie NOIZZ.de Leipzig , Berlin , Deutschland , Köln , Bingo „Shiny Flakes“: Über 4 Millionen Euro mit Drogenversand umgesetzt Leipziger Internet Zeitung 2015 wurde er zu sieben Jahren … Officers in Leipzig apprehended two individuals they believe to have been involved in the web-based Shiny-Flakes narcotics dealership, one a 20-year-old whose apartment was searched on … Instead of spending his time worrying about Bitcoin transactions, supply-side issues, bagging out crystal, and paranoid customers' vitriol, Moritz now can enjoy the leisure of incarceration: Different leisure activities on offer at the detention center in Leipzig. The logistic center in Leipzig in which the first suspicious packages surfaced. "Did he hide these insane amounts under his bed or where do you put all this in a childhood bedroom?" The authorities were very lucky. ", He also added that, in the end, it looks like Moritz became either too greedy or too sloppy: "I would never use the same username for more than a year, even if it is practical and appealing. Before he withdrew from the outside world, Maximilian pursued another career involving customer service. His competition also had him in their sights, especially over the last year. He's arrested before he can reach one of the drives containing incriminating material. They no longer necessarily have to be a violent and scary puppet master—as the example of Ross Ulbricht demonstrates—they can be a loner, new-kid-on-the-block-type, who would rather sit at home and deal online than have contact to the outside world; a person whose strengths lay in strategy, computer skills, cryptography and logistics. Image: Deutsche Post AG. The Dutch authorities recently raided the wholesale supplier, Dutchmaster, which led this month to search warrants being issued for other German dealers, including colleagues of Chris'. By using dozens of SIM cards and various cell phones he was able to keep certain channels of communication with suppliers separate. In an exclusive ​interview with Motherboard in September of 2014, Shiny said himself, "If a customer is unsatisfied with a product, I get very direct.". By signing up to the VICE newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications from VICE that may sometimes include advertisements or sponsored content. They boast of having captured data from the darknet and employing highly-specialized IT cracks during the investigation, leading to its success. At the press conference, the police also claim to have seized 325,000 euros in Bitcoin and additionally claim to have "obtained active data from the darknet." ", "How am I supposed to picture this?" Ein 20-Jähriger hatte die Drogen gehortet, um sie über den Webversand "Shiny Flakes" gewinnbringend zu verkaufen. Maximilian is accused of dealing at least 914 kilograms of drugs worldwide over a period of 14 months. His shop sites' addresses were registered in Tonga and the Cocos Islands; the servers were in the Netherlands. Obviously secrecy is the supreme virtue when it comes to all the physical and digital traces created by online dealing. Additionally, the police disclosed how much he made with his business. However, if Chris is right, this action gives surprising insight into the tactics that rival online dealers use to attack each other. This was when he began the clandestine setup of distribution channels for his steadily growing drug business. However the authorities won't speak to that, except for offering a suggestive, "Maybe.". Nachrichten » "Shiny Flakes": 38 Hausdurchsuchungen nach Drogenfund in Leipzig Push Mitteilungen FN als Startseite dts Nachrichtenagentur 12.03.2015 | 10:58 … Even though the two dealers respected each other, they ultimately found themselves in a competitive struggle. Shiny Flakes: Internet-Drogenhandel bringt "Kinderzimmer-Dealer" lange Strafe Als Schnapsidee hat ein 20-jähriger Leipziger seinen groß angelegten Online-Drogenhandel "Shiny Flakes… Er wurde inzwischen auch schon zu einer mehrjährigen Jugendstrafe By signing up to the VICE newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications from VICE that may sometimes include advertisements or sponsored content. He seems to have been especially diligent about securing the door to his room—to this day the defendant claims that his mother and stepfather knew nothing about his profitable startup because he would fortify himself in his room whenever he was conducting business. At this point the authorities had amazing luck: Prosecutors allege that Maximilian was not as protective of his data as he let on in an interview with Motherboard. One was the insufficient postage on a package that focused investigator's attention on Leipzig. The police have already been watching for a long time when the pair meet up on the two-lane road in front of the apartment building. Wenn das kein Grund zur Freude ist! The authorities are accordingly proud and refer to it as a "sensation." Press images: Deutsche Post AG. It's very probable that Dutchmaster was one of Shiny's suppliers. The lion's share of his earnings were actually made in the three months leading up to his arrest. The DIY drug boss' business had gotten out of hand, at least in recent months. Image: author. Shiny was notorious for his feisty conduct towards colleagues and clients, who he was happy to insult  repeatedly. The Gohlis district in the North of Leipzig, where Motitz's mother lived, is an unassuming and friendly residential neighborhood. Whether it was actually posted by Shiny, who was a registered dealer on three deep web markets, can't be conclusively determined today—maybe Shiny was just trying to alienate other dealers that gave him bad ratings. Chris claims to be partially responsible for Shiny changing his PGP key in mid-February, forcing him to move his domain. Der junge Mann, der hinter shiny flakes stand, wurde festgenommen. Everything the police needed for further investigations and for effortlessly shutting down the platform was laid out for them on a silver platter, from Cloudflare access to the login details for his servers at a Dutch company. After the police became suspicious of a package with insufficient postage on it, all they had to do was keep an eye out for more packages of the same size with the various stamps and return addresses. But when questioned on how they were able to seize the digitally-encrypted currency and look at darknet data, their answers came up short. And the authorities have another thrilling piece of information for those interested in bureaucracy in the audience: "He didn't keep accounting books." It was one of the biggest drug busts in German history. A total of 38 locations were searched and five other individuals were arrested. The message: Nobody is out of reach of the law's eagle eyes, not the street dealer, not the darknet vendor and not even the customers. Leipzig - Es ist einer der größten Drogenfunde in Deutschland: Die Leipziger Ermittlungsbehörden haben offenbar einen 20-jährigen Dealer überführt, der … By the end of January, 2015, after keeping several package stations under surveillance, they identified an individual who was sending as well as receiving suspicious packages. He knew that the police wouldn't be capable of reading his emails that were PGP encrypted or following his Bitcoin cash flows. The trial of Maximilian S., the alleged operator of the online drug market Shiny Flakes, began Monday in Leipzig.While the authorities continue … Using one for two years, the way Shiny did, is simply too long. Bei einer Wohnungsdurchsuchung der elterlichen Wohnung fanden die Fahnder Drogen im Werte von rund 4 Millionen Whether of all things a hacking attack could have hindered the police from reading older, encrypted emails from Shiny's .com-domain, is as of yet unclear. They not only found a neatly laid-out list of all deliveries, they also found a text document on his laptop containing the most important logins. After the drop, the courier took off, only to be nabbed by the police in a parking lot after turning a few corners while Maximilian was carrying the heavy boxes up to his room. Im Prozess am Landgericht war von rund 6000 Ermittlungsverfahren gegen mutmaßliche Kunden von „Shiny Flakes“ die Rede. On this mild winter day, the cops make their move. We are now able to trace how the seizure was executed thanks to new information provided exclusively to Motherboard Germany. Back then, more than a few people surrounding Shiny Flakes were speculating that the police were responsible for the problems. He just got too reckless. Ach, übrigens: Maximilian S. aka. A profit margin of between 50 percent and 300 percent and revenue from several thousand customers of about a million euros in the last six months alone made him into a very young, very rich person, who was also under an enormous amount of pressure because of the nature of his business. Package stations and boxes, like these shown in Berlin-Pankow, played a central role in the business. They just want to make us paranoid. So the police asked 23 post offices around Germany for similar instances and assessed the data they received. Instead, the Leipzig Police contacted property management and surveilled a totally innocent individual for over a week. More than a dozen cell phones and more than two dozen SIM cards were discovered in his room, demonstrating a high amount of effort put into logistics and organization, which continuously grew as the volume of his business did—allegedly hitting 4.1 million euros revenue per year as of February 2015. Shortly after the seizure, the Shiny Flakes website displayed a banner advertising career opportunities with the police in Saxony. A simple comparison with the personal information and photos of the building's residents at the Leipzig registration office could have cleared this other suspect. When the 20-year-old recipient of the drug delivery realizes what's going on, he runs back up the stairs into his mother's apartment and starts ripping the cables out of his hard drives. "He's been a big mouth for as long as I've known him." He would take taxis to package station 145, which was under video surveillance. "Then you can launch your barrage of in-depth questions," one officer muttered with hardly disguised disdain. "It really wasn't a typical childhood bedroom, but who knows.". Lead image:  Just a small portion of the 320 kg of all sorts of drugs, that were seized during the raid. Urteil rechtskräftig: Shiny Flakes-Admin schuldet Deutschland mehrere Millionen Maximilian S. ist auf Jahrzehnte hochverschuldet—da hilft … According to prosecutors, a courier from the Netherlands drove to the Gohlis district of Leipzig each Thursday to replenish Maximilian's supply of drugs—investigators knew this from watching the package station and the entrance to his house. He was smart enough to know how to set up his online business with the help of Tor without being discovered. But this time, they aren't alone. Leipzig – LSD, XTC, Kokain, Haschisch und Amphetamine – bei der Internet-Drogenbörse „Shiny Flakes“ gab es fast alles.Bis der Betreiber aufflog. The police publicized the success of their raid that afternoon, uploading on both Shiny Flakes' clearnet website and on his Onion domain, hosted on the darknet, an advertisement for careers in the Saxon police: "One job—1000 possibilities." "But if I, the dealer, make a mistake, then it's deadly.". He has a high school diploma but no higher education. Polizei überführt Web-Dealer "Shiny Flakes" - posted in Allgemeines: Leipzig - Es ist einer der größten Drogenfunde in Deutschland: Die Leipziger Ermittlungsbehörden haben offenbar einen 20-jährigen Dealer überführt, der über das Internet in großem Stil Drogen verkauft haben soll. Officers in Leipzig apprehended two individuals they believe to have been involved in the web-based Shiny-Flakes narcotics dealership, one a 20 … Am Mittwoch führten die Ermittler bundesweit weitere Hausdurchsuchungen durch. What is clear is that Maximilian decided he wanted to be his own boss and declared himself to be a web designer. An innocent resident of the same apartment building was also also observed, even though the police already had taken a picture of Maximilian. Der 20-Jährige befand sich im … If Maximilian had had a question for the driver, called him, and had been unable to reach him, he could have gotten alarmed and could have started destroying evidence. Chris told us about that too. According to the prosecutor, he's facing a sentence of 15 years for internationally distributing controlled substances.