Investigators were on his trail for two years before they arrested Frank L. off the Caribbean island of St Martin in July 2011. On board his 13-metre yacht "Moon Shadow", hidden behind the wall panelling, was cocaine worth 42 million euros. Since 2008, L. - a trained mechanical engineer, sailor and failed operator of a yacht equipment business - and his accomplices are said to have shipped cocaine to Germany and received several hundred thousand euros per trip.
The confessed man from Wyk on the North Sea island of Föhr has been sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison following yesterday's judgement by Flensburg District Court. His two co-defendants from the Netherlands, aged 50, and South Africa, aged 35, received prison sentences of ten and five years respectively.
The public prosecutor's office justified the sentence with the "extraordinarily high quantity" of the drug. According to experts, just over twice this amount is actually confiscated in Germany - every year!
