A 43-year-old Georgian has been transporting stolen luxury cars, worth millions, across Europe and particularly in Austria, over the course of months. The high-priced vehicles, including Aston Martins, Porsches and Ferraris, were smuggled at the behest of “unknown handlers”.
Thanks to the defense strategy of the Vienna lawyer Constantin-Adrian Nițu, the defendant received a relatively mild sentence. Although he was a courier for the criminal assigners, a direct link to the Georgian mafia could not be proven.
One of the most striking vehicles among the seized cars was a manipulated Mercedes G63 AMG worth hundreds of thousands of euros (image).
Besides this, other high-end vehicles, including a Ferrari F430 Spider and various BMW and Audi models of the luxury class, were found.
The preferred route took the cars over the border crossings of Nickelsdorf and Kittsee. The driver received several thousand euros per trip and would pick up the stolen cars on parking lots or in backyards. At the final destination, he would simply leave them standing.
In court in Eisenstadt, the defendant showed a guilty plea, but emphasized his ignorance of the handlers behind the operation. The judge was convinced by this argument and imposed a sentence of 30 months in prison, of which the “auto pilot” had already served eight months. He has since been deported to Spain.