A German investigation into an alleged online predator network operating on the messaging platform Telegram for years has resulted in convictions for three suspected members of the group’s inner circle, while a fourth defendant is currently facing trial in Berlin.
The group reportedly referred to itself as the “German driving school for experts,” but prosecutors allege that its members used Telegram chats to boast about sexual assaults against women and exchange information on how to drug victims before attacks.
According to court documents, members used coded language to describe their crimes, referring to women as “cars,” sedatives as “fuel,” and rape as “driving.” Investigators also found posts containing photographs and videos allegedly showing attacks on unconscious victims, with women described by the group as “dead pigs.”
Authorities have spent years examining messages from around two dozen Telegram groups believed to have been used by an online abuse network made up largely of Chinese men in Germany targeting mainly Chinese women. The investigation has already led to three convictions for rape and related offences, while proceedings against another accused man continue in Berlin.
“The perpetrators were characterized 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.
However, several details surrounding the investigation remain undisclosed, including the total number of alleged assaults, the number of individuals involved, and how the groups — some reportedly containing tens of thousands of members — remained active for such an extended period.
Authorities have also not confirmed whether the German Telegram groups are connected to a wider international investigation into online communities involved in drug-facilitated sexual assaults.
Germany’s privacy regulations restrict prosecutors from releasing extensive information outside court proceedings. In the ongoing Berlin trial, some hearings have also been held partly behind closed doors, limiting public access to details.
The restrictions may have contributed to the case receiving less public attention in Germany than expected. However, members of Germany’s Chinese community, particularly women, have attended court hearings to support the victims despite having no personal connection with them.
“What makes one really angry is to see that such groups hate women, they have no respect,” said Fu Xiao, who travelled around 500 kilometres (310 miles) to Berlin last week to attend the proceedings. “Women aren’t seen as people.”
In China, state media has closely followed developments in the cases, though discussions on Chinese-language social media platforms such as Rednote have faced censorship. Searches and screenshots indicate that some posts containing certain keywords have been removed, while others using indirect phrases such as “date rape” or references to “students studying abroad in Germany” have remained online.
China’s Ministry of Public Security and Rednote did not respond to requests for comment.
The German investigation has drawn comparisons with the case of Gisèle Pelicot, a French woman who was repeatedly drugged and raped over several years by her former husband and men he invited to their home. Her decision to waive anonymity during the trial sparked wider discussions about rape culture in France and internationally.
“Pelicot is not an isolated case,” Judge Markus Koppenleitner said during a Munich hearing involving 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.”
Cases resembling the “German driving school” investigation have also emerged in other countries. While authorities have not publicly linked those incidents directly to the German proceedings, some investigators have credited information from German officials and journalists as important in advancing their own inquiries.
In Los Angeles, German investigators contacted police last year regarding a possible suspect accused of drug-facilitated sexual assaults. The defendant, a Chinese graduate student, allegedly obtained drugs from a Chinese national in Germany before drugging and sexually assaulting three women in Los Angeles.
In the Netherlands, police recently arrested four men suspected of drugging and abusing women after receiving information from authorities in Germany and the United Kingdom. Dutch investigators said the suspects allegedly used social media groups to share abuse videos and discuss methods of drugging victims.
Meanwhile, Europol announced “Project Medusa,” an international effort aimed at dismantling online networks promoting drug-facilitated sexual assaults. Law enforcement agencies from Germany and the UK are leading the operation, which has already resulted in 57 arrests.
The German investigation has also renewed scrutiny of Telegram’s handling of criminal activity on its platform. The alleged network reportedly operated despite violating the app’s rules against such content.
In 2024, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris over allegations that the platform was being used for illegal activities, including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse material. He denied wrongdoing, saying the platform’s rapid growth had created challenges that allowed criminals to exploit the service.
“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.
Telegram did not respond to questions regarding the German investigation, including how alleged criminal material remained on the platform for years and whether the company had identified or reported the activity.
Court records show that some of the Telegram groups linked to the investigation existed as early as 2020. Lawyer Magdalena Gebhard, who represented a victim in a previous Berlin case that resulted in a conviction, said the network had an inner circle of eight alleged perpetrators, while some groups had as many as 50,000 members.
Police uncovered the network in 2024 after a Frankfurt man identified by German courts as Dapeng Z. allegedly shifted from targeting acquaintances to approaching strangers online, according to prosecutors.
German authorities arrested Dapeng Z., whom German and Chinese media have identified as a suspected leader of the group, in 2024 with cooperation from Chinese law enforcement, according to the Chinese consulate in Frankfurt and state-run media outlet Beijing News.
He was sentenced in February to 14 years in prison for aggravated rape, attempted murder and other offences, although he has appealed the ruling. His lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
Authorities have not disclosed how many women may have been victimised by the alleged network, but they have confirmed that the investigation remains active, raising the possibility of further arrests and additional victims.
Gebhard said one of her clients only discovered she had been sexually assaulted after investigators uncovered video evidence of the attack.
A Berlin court is expected to deliver a verdict on Wednesday in the case of Zhiting S., who is believed to have been part of the group’s inner circle, according to German and Chinese state media reports. He faces charges including sexual assault, possession of child sexual abuse material and other offences.
Prosecutors allege that Zhiting S. used his medical training to advise Telegram group members on drugs that could be used to sedate women before sexual assaults. They claim at least one individual followed his guidance before an attack in Frankfurt.
German authorities have also accused Zhiting S. of repeatedly abusing a woman in China and distributing images of the assaults online. Under German law, defendants are not required to formally enter pleas in criminal proceedings.
