Downloaded from YTS.MX
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A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY
"January 11, 2014, from…
Bastard."
That was his name.
"I always order my crystal here, then I shoot it up.
And when the first flashback comes
I cook the cocaine to make a bit of crack,
and then I smoke a nice pipe."
"Top-notch, A+++ stuff."
"Guys! I lost two teeth right afterwards.
This stuff really fucks you up.
I definitely recommend it, you dumbasses!"
Looks like he was satisfied.
1 TONNE OF DRUGS
IN HIS BEDROOM
I've never met a perpetrator like Mr. Schmidt before.
Maximilian went down in history as the kid who dealt from his bedroom
because he sold drugs online from his room at his parents' house.
I haven't been in this room for a long time.
It seems so small, but I'd guess the dimensions are right.
Well, small? It's certainly bigger than a prison cell.
The amount of drugs and money involved was astonishing,
and he was so young.
Right now I can't tell you how much money he has.
Safety.
Safety first.
That he's still proud of what he managed to achieve,
I think that's obvious.
What happened here…
is what happened.
This is where I evolved.
Let's just say that.
SHINY FLAKES DRUG SHOP
PLEASE READ OUR FAQ FIRST
ADD TO CART
PLACE ORDER
POLICE HAVE 6,000 ADDRESSES!
MAIN TITLE
REPLICA OF BEDROOM
How does someone like Max
become Shiny Flakes?
When did he reach the point where he took that exit?
"I'm not going to keep going straight ahead, I'm going to turn off."
Why? When? How come? What for?
Kind of relaxed.
He lived in his room at his mother and her partner's place.
Those were his surroundings.
He has no friends that I know of.
STEFAN COSTABEL DEFENSE LAWYER
He hasn't had a girlfriend yet either.
I HAVE TEN ACCOUNTS LEFT. INTERESTED?
HOW MUCH?
TAKE THEM ALL THEN WE'LL TALK ABOUT THE PRICE
I LOST OVER THREE GRAND LAST WEEK
I was more the annoying guy
who drew negative attention.
But I…
was also calm.
I was just the skinny kid who didn't exercise
and hung out on his computer instead.
In adolescence
when you…
develop a degree of arrogance.
The competition wasn't stiff.
GOT SOME CC+SC, NO PROBLEM
YEAH
MAX'S BEDROOM
HALLWAY, ROOM TWO, BALCONY
KITCHEN, BATHROOM, HALL
PARENTS' ROOM, LIVING ROOM
Back at that time I chatted with someone
who I know by the alias "dumb pig."
DUMB_PIG@JABBER.SK
STATUS: AVAILABLE SUBSRCIPTION: BOTH
And…
WHAT'S UP?
You talk about lots of things as the night goes on. It drags on.
NO PLANS
You talk about all kinds of bullshit.
I WAS JUST ON SILK ROAD. SO OVER THE TOP. KNOW IT?
At some point we got to talking about Silk Road.
"What's on it?" This, that, this.
And I think in that moment it was primarily about
what they offer in the way of internet fraud.
SILK ROAD ANONYMOUS MARKET
Until I realized it's actually more about drugs.
CANNABIS - DISSOCIATIVES - ECSTACY - OPIOIDS
GOOD QUALITY "ALI BABA'S HASH" FROM CAOUEN
Drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs…
From 100 doses of LSD here
to two grams of crystal meth there.
THEY HAVE EVERYTHING EVEN A RATING SYSTEM!
We went back and forth talking about it.
We realized the reason for all the drugs was that profit margins are so high.
Then I thought, yeah that's true. I crunched the numbers.
I did research.
UNDERGROUND WEBSITE LETS YOU BUY ANY DRUG IMAGINABLE
There was no moment where I thought, "Whoa, how crazy is this?"
It was more, "Whoa, this is crazy!" So, in a positive sense.
It didn't intimidate me, it made me want more.
ANONYMIZING NETWORK, TOR.
ANONYMOUS MONEY
…AND SELL DRUGS ONLINE…
My first thought was, "This exists, but it can be done way better."
IT ALL HAS TO BE IMPROVED ON
WEBSITE, SUPPORT, PICTURES…
EVERYTHING
THAT'S SOME BIG TALK
LOL NO
NO SUBSTANCE
WANNA BET
The guy I was talking to, dumb_pig, said,
"It's not so easy. It's dangerous." Yada, yada.
"You can't just make it better. How do you think you can make it better?
There is no other platform."
"All right, then you just make your own platform."
How can I ship it better than this guy?
How can I get a better profit margin than him?
How can I get more customers than him?
How can I satisfy customers better?
COKE, HASH AND SPEED SHOULD WORK WITH PEOPLE UP FOR WASTING MONEY
…WHO DON'T WANT TO BUY IN THE PARK
There were lots of sellers.
One had better customer service, the next one had the best prices,
but there wasn't anyone who did everything really well.
THIS IS THE DUMBEST IDEA YOU'VE EVER HAD
KINDERGARTEN GANGSTER COMPETING WITH A FIVE MM BUSINESS
YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW A DEALER
SO I GET TO KNOW ONE????
Lots of the dealers come from a different background.
They tend to come from the streets and have contacts where they get drugs.
They sold them there,
but have no technical knowledge on how to protect themselves
or how to set up their own shop and present things nicely.
I'M GOING TO LOOK FOR SUPPLIERS…
KAY…
It wasn't necessarily like I decided, "OK, I'm doing this."
It was more like, "How could you do it?"
And then you think it through.
And in order to see how to reach the goal you already start doing some of it.
Then I gave it a try.
REDBULL@EXPLOIT.IM STATUS: AVAILABLE, SUBSCRIPTION: BOTH
HEY, HOW'S IT GOING? WE DON'T KNOW EACH OTHER.
TRUE.
I WANT TO SELL. I NEED 25G OF COKE AND TEN MDMA. TO TEST
CAN YOU GIVE ME A GOOD PRICE? I'LL NEED IT REGULARLY.
1,700. BITCOIN ONLY
DELIVER TO PACKSTATION
OK
SEBASTIAN BUCHHOLZ, PACKSTATION, 145 04159 LEIPZIG
When I placed my first order with redbull,
I think it was something silly like 25 grams of cocaine
and something like ten or 20 grams of MDMA.
That was it.
I suddenly had it there
and had to see how it smelled, how it looked.
Hm? It was all very new and unusual.
What do I know about drugs?
It surprised everyone
because everyone assumes that the people who are active in this sphere
also consume regularly.
And that's just not Max.
COCAINE
First I had to read up on what it does to you.
What do people do with it?
When you watch shows and feature films
everything's always cool, only heroin gets a bad rap.
But other than that it's, "Hey, party! It's all fun."
Funnily enough I had this cool Xbox.
It had this kind of piano-black reflective surface,
and I thought,
"Hm, if I put it in front of my TV
and then put a cool fire on my TV,
then I'm sure the reflection will look really good on the Xbox."
And the picture was the bomb.
At first lots of people praised that and said, "It looks so yummy.
That's the only reason I'm ordering."
At the very start I was really nervous and thought,
"Oh, God! Maybe it's like in movies, you do something and the cops come."
But once you've understood the technical background that vanishes.
All that left were all the possibilities for what you could do.
Like a game.
REGISTER YOUR DOMAINS FROM JUST 3.98/YR.
SHINY-FLAKES SEARCH
CUSTOMIZE YOUR SITE
HTTP://SHINY-FLAKES.COM
SHINYDOMAIN@SAFE-MAIL.NET
NOTHING FOUND
CUSTOMIZE
SHINY-FLAKES DRUG SHOP - BUY DRUGS WITH BITCOINS
BUY DRUGS EASILY WITH BITCOINS
LAYOUT SET FEATURED IMAGE
I was often asked how this shop is different
to other online shops.
Not at all. The products were different.
You paid for it in advance,
then it was processed and sent.
Instead of shoes it was drugs.
SHINY FLAKES - DELICATE SPEED PASTE
ADD TO CART
XTC - LUCKY CLOVERS
For people who weren't so familiar with things…
FAQ (GERMAN)
…there was a section for frequently asked questions.
HOW DO YOU RECEIVE A PACKAGE ANONYMOUSLY?
HOW FAST CAN YOU SHIP TO ME?
PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THE FAQ
You could read and learn there
how it all works so everything stays anonymous.
IS IT SECURE?
ANSWER: YES!
YOUR ADDRESS INFO IS ONLY RECORDED FOR SHIPPING AND IS THEN DELETED
THEN DELETED
SAVE CHANGES
SHIP TO SPECIFIC COUNTRIES ONLY
SHIP TO ALL COUNTRIES
It is also interesting that there was a minimum order value.
It was set up so the customer could rate how satisfied they were.
PETRIC KLEINE FORMER PRESIDENT OF SAXONY BCI
That was fascinating. I'd never seen anything like it before.
It's like Amazon.
I don't get the Amazon comparison.
Amazon has different retailers.
With me it was just me.
TRANSFERRING… ELAPSED
QUEED FILES… SUCCESSFUL TRANSFERS
…SHINYFLAKES/WORDPRESS" SUCCESSFUL
RIGHT, I'M READY…
Lots of people who are good with tech will say,
"Okay, with a bit of thought and effort, I could have maybe done the same thing."
But the difference is, either you do it or you don't.
READ OUR F.A.Q. FIRST!
SHINY-FLAKES.COM/ RA6FALARUVGWBMPJ.ONION SINCE 2013
CHECK THIS OUT, NEW CLEARNET SHOP, SHINYFLAKES.COM
WICKED STUFF
I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD DO THAT ONLINE.
My shop could be run normally in the internet
because, with the right knowledge, it was simply possible.
It's no different than someone being in a marketplace in a city,
maybe behind glass.
RICARDO SCHULZ CHIEF PROSECUTOR
But then running an illegal business in plain sight.
Well, it was pretty brazen. Someone was very sure of himself.
Other people probably wouldn't manage it.
DR. HANS CHRISTOF HIERONYMUS FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST
Because they're worried or scared or think, "I can't do that.
That's an outrageous thing to do. I'll harm lots of people doing that."
But he has no such scruples,
and that's why he succeeded in doing it all so clinically.
"I control everything. I'm above everything. I can do this."
That's dangerous.
The idea to do the whole thing
came on December 10, 2013.
Two weeks later, I think on Christmas Day, the shop was up.
And then the problem was more,
"Okay, now I have a shop,
if I knew better how to get it to customers."
Then I forwarded it to dumb_pig
who was supposed to handle sales.
I wasn't up for doing that. It was too real for me.
So I thought, "Okay, look, you get all of it,
then follow my instructions and everything will be fine."
ORDER, PURCHASED #1 BY GUEST, ONE ITEM
ORDER #1 BY GUEST
#2, 3, 4, 5 BY GUEST
DUMB_PIG@JABBER.SK
OFFLINE
LAST ONLINE 1 DAYS AGO
LAST ONLINE 2… 3 DAYS AGO
I don't know what his real online name was
but at some point I started calling him dumb_pig.
Why?
Because he's a dumb pig.
HEY, WHERE ARE YOU?
PEOPLE ARE ORDERING ALREADY!
LAST ONLINE 3… 4 DAYS AGO
HELLLOOOOOO!
Yeah, dumb_pig bailed, and I thought,
"What bullshit, I worked so hard the last 30 days
and now it's just over?
I don't want anything to do with shipping. It's all too close to home.
I'd rather just do stuff on my PC and have my peace."
And then I thought, "No, now I've started it and it's not…
I can't just stop halfway."
So I did it myself.
Were you worried your family would notice?
No family.
Didn't anybody notice?
Nope.
At the very beginning,
January, February, March,
it was all very amateurish.
There's no online instructions on breaking up MDMA
or on how to portion out cocaine.
So I had to try things out on my own
to see what I could even do.
Even the simplest things.
At first I had a knife
and started digging around in the MDMA, which is like a rock.
It was chaotic.
HI, EVERYTHING GOT HERE ALL RIGHT
LIKE I SAID
Redbull was my first supplier.
He really helped me a lot.
-MDMA IS REALLY HARD -BULL
He didn't just sell me stuff,
he also put me into contact with people.
He was a kind of mentor, I'd say.
I could ask him any stupid question, eventually he answered.
MDMA IS KID'S STUFF
HOW DO I GET THE MDMA INTO SMALLER PIECES????
HAMMER, CHISEL, PLASTIC BOX
JUST REALLY POUND ON IT
AND DON'T INHALE THE DUST
REALLY???
What if someone had been standing here?
I was at the home improvement store.
Hammer, chisel.
The necessities.
That never happened?
Oh, no. They go to work, so…
Of course, it was very convenient that I could come in here and exit there.
And didn't have far to go.
Don't people make mistakes?
Not usually.
2019
LEIPZIG CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, OPEN PRISON
SHINY
This looks so funny.
I used to mess with prison officers when they came in at 6:00 a.m.
to see if you're still alive.
I always put a minion at the computer.
That confused them.
A pro.
When the shop was going I never imagined prison.
So I had no idea what to expect.
Not that it would end like this.
But now four and a half years have passed.
In those four and a half years others study and do other things,
live the college life, et cetera.
Here, there's nothing. Get up early, go to bed at night.
Very, very, very boring.
My motto has always been to stay away from other people.
I always had a small group that I'd hang out with, a few people.
But it's not good to get too involved with people in general.
I don't know, it's all pretty antisocial,
very primitive.
At the very beginning it was all pretty relaxed.
You had one order, then five, then ten orders a day.
The security measures are pretty simple.
You don't meet anyone.
And you have to make sure you don't get caught while mailing them.
Sometimes someone would look and want to mail something.
I stepped aside and said, "Go on. I have so many packages here."
And then no one cares.
At that time it wasn't that common to send drugs through the mail.
It's amazing that you can build
a flourishing drug trade with official mail services.
ROLF JACOB DIRECTOR, LEIPZIG CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
You have to have the idea and then see it through.
Yeah, the Deutsche Post did really good work.
People were ecstatic.
They ordered at 3:00 p.m. and got it the next morning at eight.
They thank you, but it was the postal service that was so fast.
In effect, the mail carriers were my couriers.
In January 2014, so basically in the first month,
I had like ten or 15 thousand euros in sales, which is still a lot.
But over time it grew so much.
You couldn't even imagine it.
From the very start it just took off.
ORDER…, PURCHASED…
PURCHASED 6 ITEMS
It kept on growing, and in the summer of 2014
he was already at something like 40 or 50 orders a day.
MDMA 84% PURITY
CLEAN METH
Lots of people found the shop searching on Google.
You can see exactly what people searched for.
They searched "buy cocaine" and were on your website.
I simply had everything.
In addition to the street drugs
I sold loads of prescription drugs.
Alprazolam, bromazepam, clonazepam,
diazepam, nitrazepam, fentanyl, midazolam, tramadol, zolpidem,
loads of prescription drugs.
ADD TO CART
PURCHASED 13 ITEMS
SHINY XTC - PINK CHUPA CHUPS…
€62.00 VIA BITCOIN
MY WALLET - WELCOME BACK! PLEASE ENTER YOUR LOGIN DETAILS BELOW
LATEST TRANSACTIONS
< 1 MINUTE
Every normal adult is concerned with money.
And, as it is with all of my drug dealers,
they live life in the fast lane.
Whether that's buying handmade shoes or tailored suits.
They really lived it up then.
Max didn't do that at all.
All of the money…
he didn't spend it.
The most fun thing about it was watching it grow.
Big city, small town,
the smallest Bavarian backwater…
STANLEY BUSTER HAZE 200 G, XTC R CHUPA 880
DANIEL STROHWALDT KETAMIN 159 G, MDMA 140 G
EVA BRENDELSTEIN HAZE 400 G, SPEED 140 G
JOHANNES SCHMIDT KETAMINE 40, G METH 200 G
Indonesia, China, Australia too, people ordered from all over.
INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING
WE SHIP TO THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES WITHOUT PROBLEMS
GERMANY, AUSTRIA, SWITZERLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, IRELAND…
When you sell drugs online you have a much bigger reach
than if you just stand around in a park.
You can operate worldwide although you're in one spot.
MIGUEL GUERRA SPEED 520 G, XTC GOLD 820 PCS
The most bizarre order was the one from Columbia.
I thought, "They must have enough drugs."
THE BOMB - IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER!
THIS POWDER TOPS ALL ELSE.
NO BETTER SPEED AROUND THAN SHINY'S! WORLD CLASS!
VERY NICE… SUPERFAST, WELL PACKAGED, TOP QUALITY
ONLY SHINY FROM NOW ON!!!
10/10 PRODUCTS, LEGIT
HAZEY_666 - JUNE 14, 2014 SUPERFAST AND SUPER SAFE!
SCHICKYMICKY - JUNE 12, 2014 ORDERED ON JUNE 7TH, STILL PROCESSING…
RATED 3 OUT OF 5
THIS SCAMMER WRITES THE GOOD REVIEWS HIMSELF!!!!
GET RID OF THE MINIMUM ORDER VALUE! 70 EUROS??
ORDERED ON JUNE 7TH, STILL PROCESSING…
SUPERFAST AND SUPER SAFE!
To keep an overview of all of the orders
I had created a very simple list in Excel
because I had to figure out for myself
how exactly to collect that info.
TOBIAS HEINZ AMSELWEG 23, 82516
USERNAME, ORDER CONTENTS, ORDER DATE, EMAIL, ADDRESS
DECRYPT/VERIFY NOTEPAD
DANIEL ILGENHOF PACKSTATION 154, 24122 KIEL, GERMANY
He did things that didn't correspond to what he'd promised his online customers.
MDMA 70 G
24122 KIEL
In your FAQs you said you wouldn't save customers' names.
Yeah…
That's just one of those things.
At some point I started using the spreadsheet.
Of course I could have just gone to the top row
and deleted January through August.
Nobody needs that now.
But I just didn't do that.
ORDER, FIRST NAME
FIRST NAME, LAST NAME
Maximilian felt safe.
His behavior showed that.
And it went well for a long time.
POLICE
SAXONY POLICE
June 26, 2014.
I rent an apartment in Leipzig.
Today at about 8:15 a.m.
I left my apartment.
At around 12:50 I came back home
and I found two A5 envelopes on my mailbox.
Both had "Leipzig Repository" written on them as the sender.
RETURN TO SENDER
I don't know a Leipzig Repository on the housing development,
so I took both envelopes with me.
I then called my neighbor and asked him if he had ordered something on eBay.
He said he hadn't.
He looked at the envelopes and said,
"Let's see what's inside."
When they were opened
we determined it contained several gray plastic bags.
After that I promptly informed the police
My colleagues found 100 grams of amphetamines,
a small amount of cocaine
and some ecstasy pills.
You don't think much about it when you find one or two,
but we started identifying more and more such packages
across Germany.
TOBIRAMA LANDSCAPE GARDENING
Then we realized that those senders didn't exist.
They were all bogus addresses
RENATE'S ORGANIC SEED & CO, EINLIGSTRASSE 2
SCREW PROS, HEDWIGSTRASSE 9-5
NOT REGISTERED WITH THE TRADE LICENSING OFFICE
Many of them had one thing in common.
They were sent via the mail dispatch center in Radefeld.
That was more or less the first sign that,
"Mm-hmm, could have something to do with Leipzig."
You can't avoid packages being returned.
Then of course the police can find out where it was sent from.
That doesn't lead to me.
Yes, that's correct.
But there are other characteristics.
Who paid for the postage?
But that didn't help us either
because Mr. Schmidt made sure to cover his tracks.
It proved advantageous
to be relatively well-versed and connected when it comes to cybercrime.
You needed package pickup stations
to receive deliveries.
You needed a postage account to buy stamps.
You needed bank accounts to convert the Bitcoins into cash.
How can I hide my identity? How can I avoid getting caught?
On the street someone can always see you.
On the Internet it's, "Am I leaving traces?
and if I am, in what form?"
Is there a big group behind it?
Are there suppliers who procure the drugs?
Are there helpers who send the packages, and so on and so forth?
The investigations they initiated were aimless.
I find him evaluating our investigations pretty shameless
because in the end he fell short.
LATEST TRANSACTIONS
FLAKES MOROCCAN SUPER POLM HASH 6…
OUT OF STOCK… IN STOCK
One thing Maximilian had fun with
was that he always put a little packet of gummy bears
in the envelopes.
Of course people liked that.
One guy said, "Great,
first gummy bears, then drugs."
The next one said, "I just sell the drugs,
and then I get the gummy bears."
Basically it was an idea
to add another positive feature to customer service.
It's so simple, but people talked about it.
At first you could order anything. Then someone ordered 17 grams of MDMA.
That's just nuts if you have to package it all.
17, you can't even prepare that much,
unless you take ten, five and two maybe.
You've got those ready You pre-portion things that sell often.
I had to portion out gram per gram per gram at a time.
One gram here, five grams there.
When you measure portions one after the other
you develop a feel for it.
In prison I worked in the kitchen.
I had to measure 300 ml of cherry compote for semolina pudding.
That was really easy for me.
This person, in a year or just a bit over a year,
actually only lived his life to commit several crimes each day.
So he woke up every day and said, "I'm going to continue my crime spree."
It wasn't like he was just selling one pill that day
or ten grams of marijuana,
instead he decided to sell it on a grand scale
and to earn money with it.
Didn't you ever feel guilty about it?
About what?
That you were making people addicted or sick?
I didn't really feel guilty about whether it was harming anyone
because for me the logical argumentation was,
"If not from me, then from someone else."
Yes…
in his case, the direct harm is…
If I hit someone I see their smashed up face
or their black eye, or whatever.
In his case the harm is anonymous.
And that's why his way of reflecting on it is perhaps different.
SHINY-FLAKES XTC - GREEN CHUPA CHUPS 100 MG - SHINY FLAKES EXCLUSIVE
REGULAR PRICE (EUR) 4.00 PUBLISH
The reason I had such cheap prices
was that I purchased very large quantities from my suppliers.
And then, over time, I also got the best suppliers into the fold.
DUTCHASTER@JABBER.COM
STATUS: AVAILABLE, SUBSCRIPTION: BOTH
HOW IS BUSINESS?
ANY FEEDBACK ON THE SHINYFLAKES EXCLUSIVES?
GREEN CHUPA CHUPS ARE A GREAT AS USUAL
I was in contact with Dutchmasters, for example.
When they brought out a new pill,
in their first batch they would press maybe one to two million pills.
I would order 100,000, 150,000 right away.
Is it even possible for a young man of 19, 20 years old
to run such an operation alone?
We had considerable doubts to the end
because the effort that was put into it,
with all the logistics too, was just too enormous.
WHERE ARE YOU? SEND
WHAT IS TAKING YOU SO LONG? SEND
INFORMATION? SEND
MESSAGE SENT
I'M THERE IN 15 MIN
The courier couldn't know he was basically delivering it to my door.
I said, "Hey, send your guy there,
then they'll meet."
I spoke in the third person.
I can't say, "I'll come there." That sounds very unprofessional.
And if, say, some 200 kilos arrive at once like that one time,
you have to go up to the fourth floor a few times.
We didn't have an elevator.
DON'T DELIVER PACKAGE TO CHILDREN!
No, I wasn't worried that anyone would steal it.
Even if someone did, they wouldn't say,
"Hey, Police, I found drugs."
At least that's my guess.
He led his own life in that apartment.
And his mother knew nothing about her son.
She didn't know when he got up. She didn't know…
She knew that he cooked.
The only thing she did for him was the laundry.
However, he then folded it in the laundry basket
and took it into his room.
And it's true that his mother actually did not enter
her son's room for over a year.
The investigations showed that he,
independently from his millions in revenue,
actually returned the family's empty bottles.
And,
as it turned out,
he got to keep the deposit he got for himself
as a way to supplement his allowance.
Mr. Schmidt was reluctant to speak about his family
and about his nearest relatives.
Perhaps because he wants to be seen as an individual
and not as part of a family,
not as part of a collective.
Because if he did that then that collective
would have to put up with the uncomfortable question
"Why did you turn out the way you did?"
I think he really is ashamed of that.
It's a peculiarity of this case that someone
who wasn't really a criminal before,
or rather wasn't a criminal at all,
was able to use the internet
to in a very short time make himself capable
of committing crimes on this scale.
A psychologist would ask you exactly that very question.
When did you take that step and say,
"Hey, being a criminal is okay."
But that question,
at least for me as a 14, 15, 16-year-old, didn't arise in that form.
It isn't comparable to saying, "Hey, I'll rob a bank!"
You feel your way into it slowly.
CRIMENETWORK.BIZ
CRIMENETWORK UNLEASHED SCENE
The first time you visit a website
that is about hacking and online fraud,
it's certainly different than people imagine.
WEBHACKING/WEBSECURITY/ CODING/MALWARE/EXPLOITS
My first experiences on those boards were simply
being among people who think the same.
At that time, even as a little guy who wanted to cause a lot of trouble.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
HOW DO I STEAL PASSWORDS?
CHECK OUIT THIS TOOL…
You felt drawn into the situation,
as if you were in another world.
Planting keyloggers or Trojans on random people's computers
were the first steps.
"Ha, I did it!" And now I can watch through his webcam or something.
Just a dumb example.
Usually you'd get your hands on some kind of login data.
Then you had some fun logging in
and deleting his profile or something, trolling around.
Or you go into his eBay account
and put something in it for fun.
When you're 14, 15 you do that kind of stuff, maybe.
There are people like that. Maybe I was one of them.
Actually, there was no point to it.
But you just went and did it.
I mean, you didn't aim to empty his bank account as a first step.
Maybe you develop that idea later
when your interest turns to, "Hey, I can make money this way."
This is basically his application.
résumé…
Yeah, his cover letter.
"Hardworking, punctual, conscientious."
RÉSUMÉ
I left school and I thought, "I have to do something."
And then I started working as a waiter
because I knew I'd get a job right away.
I kind of had fun being a waiter, because you're close to people.
People always said to me, "That's not your thing."
But it was so distanced
because of the service procedure.
Okay, a guest is coming. "Hello." Be friendly, yada, yada.
Seat them, do this, do that. It's actually a simple job.
He accepted authority.
MAURO BARTOLINI OWNER DON CAMILLO & PEPPONE
But only from people where he knew full well,
"They know and can do more than me."
Otherwise he never accepted authority.
Everything that was done often, for everyone,
things that were done at a relaxed tempo,
were boring, they weren't his thing.
He always wanted to move quickly,
to make quick progress.
He wanted to be first. He was meticulous.
That's why his colleagues who weren't perfect bothered him.
He said we need perfection here
and we need it from the whole team.
He was unforgiving.
SILVIA BARTOLINI OWNER DON CAMILLO & PEPPONE
If someone didn't work like Max pictured it.
I didn't have to do a thing. Max took care of it.
He said,
"Fix it. Do it better."
That is a classic example of hubris.
We said, "What do you do in the evenings? Do you go out, go to the club?
What do you do at home?"
He said, "I sit at my laptop
and I do stuff."
Yeah? But, of course, he didn't say exactly what he was doing.
USERNAME APATE
LOGIN
APATE
My profile picture on Crimenetwork was Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator.
He's cool. I mean, the way he looks.
No idea about what he does in North Korea.
There are various levels on Crimenetwork.
There's newly registered users, then the first and second levels.
And you have the moderators,
the administrators who run the board.
And then there's also an elite level.
MODERATOR, TRIAL-MOD, ELITE…
I was practically a category unto myself.
MAX
How did you achieve that status?
Hard to say, because that involves earlier things.
What is said to have happened before isn't relevant to me.
This is about drugs, and it'll stay that way.
CRIMENETWORK.BIZ, MEMBERS, SHOUTBOX
LIBRARY OF THE BASICS INSTRUCTIONS ON GETTING STARTED
FRAUD EARN MONEY WITH STOLEN LOANS
It was a refuge for him. He was somebody there.
He had an importance there.
People talked about him there.
They considered him to be a big stud.
All of that flattered him. He liked all of that.
It was his world, where he got the recognition he seemed to be missing.
-Would you have liked him to stay on? -Of course.
I did it for about a year and a half.
Then there was this instance
where the boss herself gave us our assignments.
I was already in a bad mood that day.
She came up to me and said,
"Mr. Schmidt, if you don't want to work you can go home."
Right. "Okay, then I'll go." And I left.
Because at that moment I didn't exactly need the money.
And, because I was so young,
the thing that brings us here today happened very quickly.
Max will open his own wonderful restaurant one day.
Or he'll open a really nice chic bar.
Max was born,
almost from the moment he came in here, to be a boss.
That should be his goal. That's what we thought, yes.
But he did get his own store.
Yes.
We had various approaches to the investigation.
In Baden-Württemberg
a similar package was found.
The measures our colleagues there carried out
indicated the recipient of this package
browsed a particular site very frequently.
…THAT THE ACCUSED OFTEN VISITED THE SITE WWW.SHINY-FLAKES.CC:
Then we knew about the existence of the page.
We were shocked.
Someone was very brazenly dealing narcotics
on the freely accessible Internet.
PRINT
You look through the site from start to finish.
We didn't actually plan on it, but it is standard for an online shop,
even legally required to have company information listed.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? TIME TO PARTY!
COMPANY INFORMATION OR SIMILAR NOTICES… HAVE NOT BEEN FOUND YET.
HOW CAN I GET IN CONTACT WITH YOU?
Where is this shop registered?
Where is the shop's domain registered?
Always with the aim of finding the beginning of the thread.
We figured out where the server was.
SAXONY BCI GERMANY
SERVER NETHERLANDS
It was all linked upstream to an encryption provider in the USA.
CLOUDFLARE SAN FRANCISCO, CA
The provider Cloudflare was primarily there
so if the website is attacked by competitors or other people
the website stays online.
It only shows incompetence to claim it was used for concealment,
although it had a technical purpose.
We enquired there.
He stated that he would inform the person in question
about the police's activities accordingly.
…NOTIFY USERS OF REQUEST FOR THEIR INFORMATION PRIOR TO DISCLOSURE…
We didn't want that.
PRINT
INVESTIGATIONS INTO THIS ARE FUTILE.
The investigating authorities reached their limits.
A letter comes from California asking, "Who are you? Leipzig DA's office?"
"We're not interested at all."
Whether you were a police officer or a hacker or whatever,
if you had something against it
you couldn't do anything, the site worked.
I had to, and I'll admit this, laugh.
Because that is quite the coup.
Not everyone can manage that.
Well, you do feel powerless.
And you have to realize
that the firepower of perpetrators and of law enforcement isn't equal.
The reason is simply because we lack legal options,
and because the perpetrators have superior options.
And yet we always had more leads that we could continue to follow.
Around the end of December 2014 it got to be a bit too much for me.
Small things,
any kind of server problems
or problems sending emails,
the device for sealing aluminum bags breaking,
lost packages that you worried about,
all those things threw me out of my rhythm.
And due to that a backlog slowly but surely started to build up.
It led to me
making these gigantic helpings of pasta with meat sauce,
and then to me just…
eating at six in the morning or at four in the afternoon.
When you no longer have a set daily rhythm
and are just packaging up cocaine from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
then it's neither healthy nor effective.
Sometimes, and he said it credibly,
he slept only three or four hours to keep up with his packaging.
Whether he still thought it was a game is something I couldn't say.
WHERE IS MY SHIT?
WHERE'S MY ORDER, YOU…
THIRD COMPLAINT - GOODS STILL NOT HERE
I'M WAITING
LOST… !!!!????!!!!!!!!!!
GETTING NEW MAIL
YOU ARE WAITING 14 DAYS ON YOUR ORDER: IT IS BEING TAKEN CARE OF!
FAQ (ENGLISH)
BE PATIENT
EVERY OTHER REQUEST WILL BE IGNORED
At the end I had maybe 15,000 orders
and 150 orders a day
and at the peak 100,000 euros in sales on one day.
Who knows where it could've led?
But in the end I was still alone.
What I had to do was just too much.
I didn't question whether it made sense.
There were no doubts. There was no room for that.
I really didn't think about it at that time,
not until I was in prison.
Yeah, it was like being in a hamster wheel.
It just kept going. No matter how fast you run, or how slowly.
Because I constantly shipped from different locations,
it's just impossible to trace that.
Even if you trace the postmark and can see which mailbox it was dropped in,
with the 50 or 100 mailboxes you have in a city like Leipzig
you can go to a different one every day.
Are the police supposed to monitor every mailbox?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE PERSON (UMP)
IMAGE 2 UMP COLLECTING A PACKAGE FROM PACKAGE COMPARTMENT
IMAGE 4 UMP REMOVING A FURTHER PACKAGE FROM PACKAGE COMPARTMENT
We were able to trace it.
It's certainly true that he was careful about it.
But he also didn't know that he was being surveilled.
That's the point of surveillance.
IMAGE 7 UMP HOLDING REMOVED PACKAGE IN HANDS
During the psychological evaluation I asked him why he got caught
and his answer was, "It wasn't my fault,
it was because someone didn't do their job properly."
Someone he was associated with.
This again shows the attitude "I can only rely on myself."
But he did in fact need a couple of contacts.
And that's where he stumbled.
THEY ARRESTED RED BULL AND HIS PEOPLE
I ASSUME THEY HAD BEEN WATCHING HIM FOR A LONG TIME
WHO WERE THE OTHER PEOPLE?
WAS THE GUY WHO DROVE ACROSS GERMANY FOR US ONE OF THEM?
AKIHA@JABBIM.CZ IS TYPING…
THE COPS KEPT HIM IN CUSTODY FOR ONE DAY
AND THEN LET HIM GO
I DON'T GET THAT.
MAYBE AS BAIT
MAYBE THE COPS WILL LAY OFF NOW
BECAUSE THEY THINK THEY HAVE THE MAIN SUSPECT IN CUSTODY
MAYBE NOT THOUGH
BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY
I don't know what mistakes redbull made
to get the police on his tail,
but I do know
that they then found me as a result.
In the files, it said
that…
they followed him to where he dropped off the mail,
and they saw a lot of large, suspicious packages being sent to Leipzig.
Then they followed up on those because it was unusual.
and that's how they got
to the package pickup station that I often used.
There were undercover investigations, there was surveillance.
There was telephone surveillance.
It was the whole nine yards.
TIME OF RECORDING FEBRUARY 18, 2015 4:57 P.M.
On February 26, 2015 I got out of bed relatively late.
I think it was at about ten o'clock
because I was busy until late into the night, with work.
And I think at about eleven or twelve o'clock the courier came.
Up until the end we assumed
that it must have been several people.
That someone could manage it on their own,
that seemed relatively impossible to us.
They assumed
that criminal groups like that are usually armed.
I think around two o'clock
I heard drilling.
And I asked myself, "Who is drilling?
It sounds pretty nearby. Oh, well."
Police!
Police! Don't move!
-Don't move! -Hands in the air!
I didn't feel scared,
what I felt was more disbelief that it was all happening.
How can this be? How did they find me?
Quiet!
Why would they be here for me?
But it was clear pretty quickly that they were here for me.
-Good. Thank you! -Great.
And cut.
That was great.
-Yeah, I thought so too. -You all right?
I'm glad that it went smoothly.
But it was super unsettling, because it's all so surreal.
You wait and you know what's coming. And it's a bad memory.
-Yeah. -That's a good word. Bad memory.
-Yes. -That's good.
But I can laugh about it now. Great!
I don't know. On the one hand it's unpleasant.
But on the other hand it's a bit like…
Well, it's a bit like exposure therapy, I'd say.
Each time I hear "police" shouted it gets a bit more relaxed.
Masked men with machine guns in my room
smacked me across the face with the machine gun,
threw me on the ground and handcuffed me.
Then they walked over me several times.
Probably because there was so little space,
but also because it was probably fun for them.
So, yeah, and I just lay there for what felt like an hour.
That's his view of things. He probably dreamt it up that way.
Some of it will have actually taken place.
But guaranteeing
that's just how it happened would be unusual.
An arrest just isn't something
where you say, "Lie down and be nice and quiet
and put your hands on your back."
You go in and seize the suspect.
POLICE
EXHIBIT 59 …RED PILLS
The dealer, an only 20-year-old man,
sold the drugs online.
In addition to marijuana, LSD and hash
he also sold prescription drugs.
Drug dealing 2.0. This is unparalleled in Germany.
One of the biggest drug seizures ever made in Germany.
IMAGE 191 - EXHIBIT 182 CARDS, ID CARDS, CELL PHONES…
(PHONES AND CARDS SECURED BY BCI)
IMAGE 86 - OVERVIEW SHOT - EXHIBITS 96 - 103
IMAGE 133 - EXHIBIT 136 - MONEY ON SHELF
At the time our colleagues reported,
"Yes, there is a whole load of narcotics in one room."
Of course, we asked, "What do you mean by 'a whole load?'"
They said it was ten or 20 kilos.
And then it was 100 kilos.
And 15 minutes later when my colleagues asked for a delivery van
we knew
that it was over 100 kilos of drugs that we had seized from that room.
Orders worth roughly four million.
A tonne.
We're talking about a tonne.
I think in Leipzig
a few champagne corks popped that day.
We were proud of the success of our investigation.
When I was still at home
a police officer came to my room and stood in the doorframe
and just said,
"Ten years."
And he went away again.
That was the first indicator
of where things were heading.
The judges have read their verdict.
He was sentenced to seven years in juvenile prison
and must restitute three million euros to the state for drug business revenue.
That is the verdict of Leipzig State Court.
It is a serious crime, the judge said.
Allowances were made for the 20-year-old for having made a full confession
and because expert witnesses attested to his emotional immaturity.
That is why he was given a juvenile sentence.
If there is doubt about someone's moral maturity,
and in my view that was the case with him,
then…
it is appropriate
to refrain from sentencing a person as an adult.
At first I was extremely impressed
when I saw the prison.
Then I was overcome with a feeling of calm and relaxation.
I was able to switch off
for the first time after months of working nonstop.
I don't know where that feeling came from, but it was good.
I have never gotten a sense of regret or guilt from him.
In general, to me, he seemed
fairly relaxed, and fairly controlled too.
And he seemed collected.
Not very emotionally involved.
And there was this hint of pride in his eyes.
When the news came at six o'clock on RTL, or wherever else,
and they said something about 300 kilos of drugs
and mentioned a Maximilian who is now in detention in Leipzig
the entire prison flipped out.
Everyone banged on the bars and went, "Hey!
He's here!
Who is he?"
But, basically, they all reveled in it.
#FREEZ #FREESHINY LEGENDS MUST BE FREE. #FREESHINYFLAKES
I LIKE #SHINYFLAKES SHAME HE GOT BUSTED
#FREESHINYFLAKES
for him it was about fame. It was about honor and glory.
LEGENDARY SHINY FLAKES T-SHIRT €9.64 - FREE DELIVERY IN GERMANY
"LIBERATION COMMANDO" AIMS TO BREAK DEALER OUT OF JAIL
"FREE SHINY COMMANDO" WANTED TO FREE MAXIMILIAN S. FROM LEIPZIG PRISON
THE BEST TOO BAD HE GOT CAUGHT
RIDICULOUS SENDING HIM TO JAIL FOR SO LONG
1 TONNE OF DRUGS IN HIS ROOM AT HIS PARENTS' HOUSE
THE DRUG BARON'S CUSTOMERS ARE SHAKING IN THEIR SHOES
An aim of the search wasn't just to seize the drugs or to find cash
but to find indications about how we could get into the computer.
Seeing as the perpetrator, Mr. Schmidt in this case,
tried everything possible to ensure that we couldn't access the data,
it really was a banner achievement of our computer forensics team
to manage it after all.
And how did they manage it?
LOCKED
Whether it's a banner achievement of Computer Forensics
to go through my documents and find my password written down…
If that's a banner achievement, then, hurrah!
It was just dumb luck.
Well, there was…
Yes, under a pile of trash
a little bit of paper appeared.
Luckily the investigators noticed it.
And that piece of paper had the uncrackable password written on it.
It was very, very long.
I didn't answer the question at the press conference, correct.
The reason was simply that
I didn't want to lead other perpetrators to believe
that we had no options and that we're helpless.
Of course, things like carelessness…
I'll say, the human factor, human error, play into our hands.
The shop was online from late December 2013
until, effectively, the end of February 2015.
SUSPICIOUSLY GOOD JOBS SAXONY POLICE
From that time on the police had access to the website
and used it for self-promotion.
I don't know if that's even legal.
Maybe I should file a claim.
DUDE, WHAT AN IDIOT…
NO ONE KNOWS IF THERE'S EVEN A DATABASE. I CAN HARLDY IMAGINE IT.
HOW CAN YOU ORDER DRUGS WITH YOUR REAL-LIFE ADDRESS??
I ORDERED THERE BUT DIDN'T PAY.
I'M IN BAVARIA AND AM SCARED. WHAT CAN HAPPEN TO ME?
ORDERS
The order list that they found
contained roughly 13,000 or 14,000 datasets.
So that's 13,000 or 14,000 shipments.
Of course, it was a great stroke of luck for the investigators.
They had specific data.
They knew the addresses, they knew the names
and they knew what they had ordered.
Sure they were happy about it. They were thrilled.
At first I didn't realize the extent of it
because no one told me,
"Hey, we've initiated 4,000 or so criminal proceedings."
Instead, at some point,
summons started arriving saying, "You are summoned as a witness."
Even before my own trial was over I was summoned as a witness.
For every court date he was taken to
there is an extra form that has to be filled out.
This is the sixth volume.
You can see how much paper he created while in prison.
JUNE 2019
WITNESS APPOINTMENT FOR CUSTOMER TRIAL
-Hola. -You have an appointment?
-Yep. -Good.
Hello, Mr. Schmidt. Unfortunately the hearing is over.
He gave a full confession,
so we no longer need your testimony.
-Great. -That was not foreseeable.
Yeah, like always.
-You've travelled a long way. -Yo.
-But you'll receive compensation. -Great.
If you give me the summons I can sign it.
I'll need to have that printed out.
-You don't have it with you? -No, I lost it.
-Okay, we can do that. -Great.
-Okay, where is it? -You are here now.
-Up ahead and then take a right. -Who do I see?
You have to sign in downstairs.
Great!
I don't understand a word.
You were summoned as a witness for a hearing?
Yes.
-And where is the summons? -Lost, so I need a new compensation form.
Who told you that?
The guy at the entrance over by the district court.
The guy?
I don't know his name.
-Some guy in a uniform. -You have to have the form printed out.
But by the proper department.
You can't print it here? I have to run around because you're badly organized.
That's the support department. We can't do it!
Right.
How annoying. This stuff makes you sick.
Was that maybe a crime instrument?
I've been called as a witness in hundreds of proceedings.
In the end the result was that I was always travelling.
I couldn't receive visitors,
couldn't do my laundry.
I couldn't receive any letters since I was away from my facility.
Completely isolated.
I'm tearing up.
No sympathy?
Nope.
One day you'll know why.
I saw a TV crew. I checked what he looks like on Google.
Then I saw that the face matches.
I knew he was coming here due to me anyway.
You can't cancel that quickly.
Yeah, I admitted it, that's why.
It only took half an hour.
And what did you get?
Three years of probation.
A 1,000 euro fine.
-Not bad. -It was all right.
Did they say it was so long ago and you haven't been in trouble again?
-Nice guy. -That's right.
-Not a troublemaker. -Well, they couldn't prove I was selling.
More of a buyers' cooperative.
How much was the hearing about?
Four kilos of speed,
100 grams of MDMA, cocaine, yeah.
-Then you got off easy. -Yes, I got off very easy.
Yeah.
A buyers' cooperative.
That's why… It was for personal use. That's what they said.
-Very good. -Really lucky, yeah.
You're on day release now?
Yeah.
-I get out next month. -Okay.
So it was worth it, right?
I think so.
Did they find all the Bitcoins?
I don't know. They say there's more.
I say there isn't.
It's kind of a standoff. No one really knows what…
-Okay. -…really knows what…
-I have to get off. All the best. -Take care.
Don't cause trouble.
Bye-bye!
That was one of the questions.
It remained throughout the investigation and the main trial
as well as in the aftermath.
Where did all the money go?
INCOME SHINY_FLAKES INCOME FROM 12 WALLETS
15188.03 BTC / €4,169,191.41!!!
The revenue from the opened wallets amounted to 350,000 euros.
In the end, yes.
We admit we couldn't open two wallets.
What's inside?
We don't know.
That many people can't imagine
that money having vanished somehow or other
and believe it was hidden somewhere
is very understandable.
They form an opinion and say, "Of course there's money in there."
No one can prove it, no one can trace it.
If I had access I could say, "Here, look, there's nothing in it."
If I had access and there was money in it, I'd hardly show it.
Max isn't rich, no. I don't believe that.
What stops you from saying,
"I don't have one cent of it."
Yes, one could say that.
-It's not a lie? -One could say that.
One can say that.
But we only go public with the truth.
Yeah.
So? Is there still money in it?
Well, there's not a cent in that wallet.
I know that much.
Do you still have any of that money?
I don't think so. No.
That business got me experience and wasted time.
Not a cent?
Not a cent.
We'll see what the future brings.
What does that mean?
We're watching to see if he commits further crimes.
He's outside on parole.
If there is cause…
But, for example,
if he uses his knowledge and the monetary means he certainly still has
to commit further crimes.
Do you have concrete suspicions?
I won't comment on that.
So yes.
JUNE 2020
ONE YEAR OF FREEDOM
Since my arrest I was in prison for four years and seven months.
They have procedures to decide
if your conduct has been good, if resocialization prospects are good.
Then an evaluator says, "Okay, things seem to be moving in the right direction.
We'll give him a chance to get out earlier."
Do you have plans?
I'm working at a car lot right now.
Is that true?
Yes.
What do you do there?
These are detailed questions.
Car stuff.
Yeah, well,
office stuff.
At the car lot.
We're going to go to the Reichstag.
Cheers!
Cheers.
It worked well.
Max swiped me left at first.
-Then he thought, "She's pretty cute." -I could rewind.
I could decide, "Shit, I do want her after all."
I was like, "Ah!
"Gone. Actually, not."
We had an ice cream
and then we went to a stationery store
because my girlfriend needed stamps for an important letter.
Then I showed off my postage knowledge
and said, "That little stamp isn't enough for that large format envelope."
That's right! I thought about that afterwards.
Like, "He sure knows a lot about this." Oh, yeah.
How can it be that he didn't say a word about it the entire time?
You don't have to come on like gangbusters.
It'll come out sooner or later.
It definitely comes up in every conversation.
Who Max is, what he's been through.
It always goes over well.
So, Max, thanks for having a very good story.
-Sure thing. It was my pleasure. -Yeah.
Do you have a story you tell people when they ask what you do?
Or do you just say…
Yeah, sure, I work at a car lot, so…
Really? Is that your story?
-Yeah. -Okay.
Okay.
-He hems and haws a lot. -Yes.
And he doesn't want to say much, and that's okay.
I don't keep on prying.
He doesn't have to talk if he doesn't want to.
How important is it for you to have friends?
Oh, kind of important.
Wow!
Dude, I could answer that for you better.
An assist.
Right off Max always asks, "Do you want more to drink? An ice cream?
I'll get it for you. What do you want to eat? We'll cook."
Yeah, it's really nice. Yeah.
We have to teach Max to ride a bike.
That's on our to-do list this summer.
I mean, sometimes you save things for later.
And so this year I'll learn how to ride a bike.
I never had a bike. That's why.
Do you worry that something else could happen?
No.
I mean, he's a sweetheart.
I don't think anything will happen.
He'll stay with me.
His mother would probably say that too, that he's the sweetest guy on earth.
I consider him to be someone
who'll very carefully weigh up which risks he'll take going forward.
In my estimation
he won't commit a second offense.
The next question is speculative at this point.
Does he even need to engage in criminal activity again?
DRUG RAID IN LEIPZIG: COCAINE AND CASH SEIZED
August 26, 2020.
In a drug raid, police in Leipzig seized narcotics and a large sum of cash.
Four men and one woman are suspected of drug trafficking,
the suspects are between 22 to 41 years old.
Authorities say investigations are ongoing.
The focus is currently on examining and evaluating the evidence
such as seized computer technology.
MARCH 2021
Hello.
I have news.
The news is that today I can inform you
that Mr. S
is under investigation.
He, along with others,
once again began operating an online shop through which illegal drugs were sold.
The page had a different name,
but the overall approach taken and the way it is set up is similar
to Shiny-Flakes.
Mr. Schmidt knows he is being investigated
and that he is a suspect.
I think the evidence against him is good.
And I anticipate that the prosecution will issue an indictment.
Yes.
You don't want to talk about it at all?
No.
Why not?
That has nothing to do with it.
THE PROSECUTION HAS YET TO CONCLUDE ITS INVESTIGATION INTO MAXIMILIAN SCHMIDT.
IF INDICTED, INNOCENCE IS PRESUMED UNTIL THE CONCLUSION OF THE TRIAL.
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