BERLIN — Framed to outsiders as an exclusive “German expert driving school”, a sprawling network of hidden Telegram group chats hid a horrific, well-organized criminal enterprise: a ring of predators who openly bragged about raping drugged, unconscious women, traded step-by-step tips for carrying out attacks, and even shared graphic photos and videos of their assaults. Court documents reveal the group used dehumanizing coded language to mask their crimes: women were labeled “cars”, sedating medications “fuel”, rape “driving”, and victims were dismissively called “dead pigs”.
After years of the network operating undetected, German law enforcement has uncovered a ring primarily made up of Chinese men targeting mostly Chinese women living across Germany. To date, three core members of the group have been convicted on rape and related charges, with a fourth high-profile defendant awaiting a verdict in a Berlin court.
The full scale of the abuse remains shrouded in secrecy, in large part due to strict German privacy rules that restrict public disclosure of court details and limit what prosecutors can share outside of official proceedings. During the ongoing Berlin trial, portions of hearings have even been closed to the general public. This lack of transparency has contributed to the case flying under the radar in mainstream German discourse, but members of Germany’s local Chinese community — mostly women — have mobilized to show solidarity, traveling hundreds of kilometers to attend court hearings to support victims they have never met.
Fu Xiao, one community member who made the 310-mile trip to Berlin to observe the trial, emphasized the anger over the group’s blatant misogyny. “What makes one really angry is to see that such groups hate women, they have no respect. Women aren’t seen as people,” she said.
While Chinese state media has covered the court proceedings extensively, public discussion on Chinese-language social platforms including Rednote has faced partial censorship. Screenshots and searches confirm that posts using direct keywords referencing the case are often deleted or banned, while content using indirect phrasing such as “date rape” or “students studying abroad in Germany” often avoids removal. Neither China’s Ministry of Public Security nor Rednote have responded to requests for comment on the censorship policy.
Legal observers and judges have drawn clear parallels between this case and the high-profile Gisèle Pelicot trial in France, where a woman was drugged and repeatedly raped by her husband and dozens of strangers he recruited over a decade. Pelicot’s choice to waive her anonymity sparked a global reckoning with systemic rape culture, and German judges note the “German Driving School” case is far from an isolated incident tied to any single nationality or region.
“This is not a Chinese or French phenomenon, but one that also exists in Germany and, ultimately, worldwide,” said Judge Markus Koppenleitner during a Munich hearing for one of the convicted defendants.
The exposure of the German ring has already rippled across the globe, triggering new investigations and arrests linked to similar networks of predatory misogynist groups. Last year, German investigators shared intelligence with Los Angeles law enforcement that led to charges against a Chinese graduate student accused of drugging and assaulting three local women, who allegedly obtained his sedatives from a contact connected to the German network. Just last month, Dutch police arrested four men on suspicion of drug-facilitated sexual abuse after receiving tips from German and UK authorities; the Dutch group also used social media chat groups to share assault footage and coordinate attacks.
Last week, the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol launched Operation Medusa, a coordinated international crackdown specifically targeting online networks that facilitate drug-facilitated sexual assault. Led by law enforcement from Germany and the United Kingdom, the operation has already resulted in 57 arrests across multiple countries.
The case has also reignited long-simmering criticism of Telegram, the encrypted messaging platform that hosted the abusive chats for years in direct violation of the platform’s own terms of service. Questions continue to mount over how the chats — some boasting tens of thousands of members dating back to at least 2020 — operated undetected for so long. In 2024, Telegram’s founder was arrested in Paris over allegations the platform has repeatedly become a haven for criminal activity, ranging from drug trafficking to the distribution of child sexual abuse material. He has denied all wrongdoing, framing the abuse as a growing pain tied to Telegram’s surging user base that outpaced content moderation capacity.
In a generic statement, Telegram said “Sexual violence is explicitly forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service and such content is routinely removed,” adding that the platform complies with all legal obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act. The company declined to answer specific questions about the German network, including whether moderators were aware of the abusive content, what steps were taken to remove it, and whether the platform alerted law enforcement to the ongoing criminal activity before police made their own discovery.
Court documents confirm the earliest chats linked to the network date to 2020. Magdalena Gebhard, an attorney who represented one victim in a prior convicted case, told reporters the network had a core inner circle of eight ringleaders, while some of the broader public chat groups counted up to 50,000 members. German police only first learned of the network’s existence in 2024, after ringleader Dapeng Z. shifted his tactics from assaulting female acquaintances to targeting strangers he met online, leaving a trail that alerted authorities. Dapeng Z. was arrested in Germany the same year in a joint operation with Chinese law enforcement, and sentenced to 14 years in prison in February on charges of aggravated rape, attempted murder, and other offenses. He has since filed an appeal, and his legal team has not responded to requests for comment.
Authorities have not publicly released a full count of confirmed victims or linked perpetrators, and stress the investigation remains ongoing. Multiple victims only learned they were assaulted after police uncovered graphic video footage of the attacks stored in the group chats. On Wednesday, the fourth inner circle defendant, Zhiting S., will receive his verdict in Berlin. Prosecutors allege Zhiting S. used his prior medical training to share detailed guidance with the chat group on which sedatives were most effective for subduing victims before assault, and at least one attacker followed his instructions to carry out an assault in Frankfurt. He is also charged with possession of child sexual abuse material and the repeated sexual assault of a woman in China, which he documented and shared to the network. Under German law, defendants are not required to enter formal pleas, and Zhiting S.’s legal team has declined to comment on the charges.
Editor’s Note: This report contains discussion of sexual violence. Individuals affected by sexual assault can seek support at 1-800-656-4673 in the U.S., 116 016 in Germany, and 15117905157 in China.