Telegram ‘drug rape’ network has shocked Germany as they dubbed themselves the “German driving school for experts”; however, prosecutors claim that chats had a different purpose. The secret codes used to assault women by an online predator network have everyone stunned.
This network of Telegram allegedly used coded language to brag about sexually assaulting women, drugging methods and attacking them. Prosecutors note that these members disguised their activities under terms such as “cars,” “fuel,” and “driving.”
The court documents reveal that they called the victims they rapped as “dead pigs” and used the platform to boost sexually assault and share advice on drugging victims.
Investigators have examined years of messages from nearly two dozen Telegram groups that authorities believe were part of an online predator network, largely involving Chinese men who allegedly targeted Chinese women living in Germany. The probe has led to the conviction of several members, with another case recently concluded in Berlin.
“The perpetrators were characterised by a particular ruthlessness, an objectification of the victims, and the perfidious planning of their crimes,” Frankfurt chief prosecutor Dominik Mies told The Associated Press (AP).
Predator network’s coded language
A group calling itself a “German driving school for experts” in chat groups on Telegram used code words when discussing drugging and sexually abusing women, according to prosecutors.
Major details of the investigation remain unknown, at least to the public, including how many attacks and perpetrators have been linked to the German Telegram chats and how the chats, some of which reportedly had tens of thousands of members, could have operated for so long. It’s also unclear if the chats are linked to a ballooning investigation in Europe and the Americas into drug-facilitated sexual assaults by misogynist online communities.
Under German privacy laws, prosecutors are limited in what they can say outside the courtroom, documents are restricted and, in the ongoing case in Berlin, members of the public have been forced to leave the courtroom during parts of the trial.
This may be why the investigation into the Telegram group has garnered less attention in Germany than might be expected. But members of the country’s Chinese community, mostly women, have been attending court proceedings to show support for the victims even if they don’t know them.
“What makes one really angry is to see that such groups hate women; they have no respect,” said Fu Xiao, who travelled roughly 500 kilometres (310 miles) to Berlin last week to attend the trial. “Women aren’t seen as people.”
In China, state media has covered the cases comprehensively, but wider discussion about the prosecutions on Chinese-language social media like Rednote has been partially censored. Certain tags are more likely to get a post deleted or banned on Rednote, as screenshots and searches show. But posts using less direct language have survived the censors, including ones that refer to “date rape” or the euphemistic “students studying abroad in Germany.”
China’s Ministry of Public Security and Rednote didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Cases echo a landmark French trial
The German cases have drawn comparisons to the attacks on Gisèle Pelicot, a French woman who, over the course of nearly a decade, was repeatedly drugged and raped by her then-husband and strangers he invited to their home. The trial — and Pelicot’s decision to waive her anonymity — prompted a reckoning over rape culture in France and beyond.
“Pelicot is not an isolated case,” Judge Markus Koppenleitner said during a hearing in Munich for one of the Chinese men convicted in the German investigation. “This is not a Chinese or French phenomenon, but one that also exists in Germany and, ultimately, worldwide.”
Similar cases to the “German driving school” investigation have been popping up around the globe. Although authorities haven’t publicly linked them to the German prosecutions, some investigators have cited tips from German authorities and journalists as crucial to their progress.
In Los Angeles, German investigators last year reached out to police about a potential suspect in drug-facilitated sexual assaults. The defendant, a graduate student from China, is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting three women in LA after he allegedly procured the drugs from a Chinese national in Germany.
In the Netherlands last month, police arrested four men suspected of drugging and sexually abusing women after hearing from authorities in Germany and the U.K. Dutch police said the alleged perpetrators used social media chat groups to disseminate videos showing the abuse and discuss how to drug victims.
And Europol, the European Union’s police agency, last week announced “Project Medusa,” an international operation designed to dismantle online networks that promote drug-facilitated sexual assaults. Law enforcement from Germany and the U.K. are leading the operation, which has already netted 57 arrests.
Cases raise questions about Telegram
The German predator network managed to thrive despite clear violations of Telegram’s terms of service, again raising questions about how the platform has been used for criminal activity.
In 2024, the app’s founder was arrested in Paris over allegations that the platform was being used for illicit activity, including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images. He denied wrongdoing, blaming surging numbers of Telegram users that he said “caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.” The investigation is ongoing.
“Sexual violence is explicitly forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service and such content is routinely removed,” the company said in a statement. “Telegram fulfils all of its legal obligations in relation to such harmful content, including everything set out by” the European Union’s Digital Services Act.
The company didn’t respond to questions about the German cases, including how photos, videos and comments about sexual crimes were posted for years in the app, whether Telegram was aware of the activity and what, if anything, it did to alert the authorities.
Some of the German Telegram chats date back to at least 2020, court documents show. Attorney Magdalena Gebhard, who represented a victim in a previous Berlin trial that led to a conviction, said there was an inner circle of eight perpetrators but that some of the chat groups had up to 50,000 members.
Police only became aware of the network in 2024 after a man in Frankfurt, referred to by German courts as Dapeng Z., changed his tactics from drugging and sexually abusing female acquaintances to targeting strangers he met online, according to prosecutors.
German police arrested Dapeng Z., whom German and Chinese media have reported is the group’s ringleader, in 2024 in cooperation with Chinese law enforcement, according to the Chinese consulate in Frankfurt and the Beijing News, a state-run media outlet.
He was sentenced in February to 14 years in prison for aggravated rape, attempted murder and other offences, though he has appealed. His attorneys didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Although authorities haven’t publicly said how many women were victimised by the “driving school” network, they have said their investigation is ongoing, meaning there could be further arrests and additional victims. Gebhard’s client, for example, only learned she had been sexually assaulted after investigators discovered video footage.
Another defendant convicted in Berlin
On Wednesday, Zhiting S., a 32-year-old trained medic, was convicted of being an accessory to rape, among other charges, and sentenced to five years in prison. The defence plans to appeal the verdict.
The Berlin state court found that in the chats, Zhiting S. had pointed to a particular sedative before an assault by the man convicted in Frankfurt, though he wasn’t alone in offering such advice.
Zhiting S. also was convicted on three charges of sexual coercion related to alleged abuse of his partner in China. Video recordings led investigators to those crimes.
Defence attorney Ehssan Khazaeli said earlier that his client had admitted to being part of a chat group but offered no significant advice.
With inputs from agencies
