Like all good thrillers, the latest drug case involving police in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, is full of unexpected plot twists and occasional hilarious moments. After all, German police have managed to bust a drug gang and catch a dangerous criminal based on an unorthodox clue: a pizza.
A very special pizza, indeed—one where the main ingredient wasn’t pineapple, anchovies, cheese, pepperoni, or any other usual topping. Its secret? Cocaine.
To understand, we have to go back to March, when, during a routine health inspection of a pizzeria in Düsseldorf, officials found more than just flour, cheese, and jars of sauce in the kitchen. They discovered drugs. Officials alerted the police, who began investigating the business and noticed something curious: one of the pizzas on the menu, No. 40, was unusually popular with customers in the city’s drinking district.
Pizza No. 40, the Star Dish
“It was one of the most-sold pizzas,” chief inspector Michael Graf von Moltke told The Guardian. What seemed like a culinary quirk turned out to be something far more surprising: the famous pizza No. 40 had a peculiar secret ingredient.
Or rather, the pizzeria was adding a topping not typically found in traditional Neapolitan cuisine: cocaine.
Beneath each round base of cheese and tomato was a bag of white powder. “That was new to us and surprised us because the owner had never been accused of drug crimes,” von Moltke said. The surprise didn’t stop with what the German press has since dubbed “Pizza Kokain.” The restaurant’s owner, a 36-year-old Croatian, didn’t fit the profile of a typical drug dealer, having no prior record of such offenses.
But appearances can be deceiving.
When police arrived at his home, the man tried to dispose of the evidence by throwing a bag of drugs out the window—only for it to land directly on the officers. According to Spiegel, the operation resulted in the seizure of 3.5 pounds of cocaine, 0.88 pounds of cannabis, and approximately €268,000 euros (about $278,000) in cash, among other items, according to an English translation provided by Google. The police arrested the pizza maker but released him within days due to his lack of a criminal record.
The story could have ended there, but one more twist was still to come.
The fact that police caught him red-handed didn’t stop the narco-pizzeria owner from returning to his restaurant two days later to sell his signature dish: pizza No. 40, with a generous serving of cheese, sauce, dough—and a side of cocaine.
Police lucked out, as they were able to do more than just gather evidence against the pizza maker. They decided to dig deeper into his supply chain, which soon led them to an old acquaintance of the officers: a 22-year-old Russian martial arts expert described by von Moltke as “violent and unscrupulous.”
In fact, German authorities suspected the man of attacking and robbing rival drug dealers in the past, even holding one hostage for two nights before stealing hashish from his home. Police quickly suspected him of dealing cocaine and cannabis.
The result? What began as a routine food inspection at a pizzeria in Düsseldorf turned into a massive operation involving 150 officers and searches across Wuppertal, Mönchengladbach, Solingen, Meerbusch, Hilden, Haan, and Erkrath.
In addition to the Russian mixed martial arts expert, authorities have taken a 30-year-old suspected German trafficker from Cologne and a 28-year-old Moroccan man who was arrested in Haan, near Düsseldorf, into custody. Police consider a dozen others as suspects. As for the narco-pizza maker, Spiegel reports that authorities re-arrested him when he attempted to flee abroad.
Police have accused the gang of buying “pounds” of cocaine and cannabis and selling them to other dealers, as well as cultivating marijuana in private homes. One plantation had about 300 plants, and another had around 60. The young Russian martial arts expert faces up to 15 years in prison for various offenses.
Officials have revealed little about the cocaine pizza, except that the pizzeria’s slogan was “We deliver everything home to you.” If you’re wondering what was in the pizza—whether it contained pineapple or anchovies—you’re out of luck: Police have said they won’t disclose the ingredients.
Images | Pablo Pacheco (Unsplash) | Daniel Foster | Alan Hardman (Unsplash)
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