The Amsterdam top athlete Madiea G. is on trial in Kleef, Germany, for smuggling a large amount of drugs on Monday. The 400-meter specialist will hear her verdict from the German court that same day. There is a chance that she will be sentenced to many years in prison.
The indictment against the 27-year-old Amsterdam is serious. On 18 June, German customs found many kilos of hard drugs in the trunk of her car during a routine check at a border crossing at Elten in Germany. It concerned more than 13 kilos of crystal meth and 43 kilos of ecstasy with an estimated street value of 2 million euros. She also had a further 12,000 euros in cash. The smuggling of such quantities of hard drugs is subject to a prison sentence of between 2 and 15 years in Germany.
A long prison sentence marks the end of G.’s top sporting career, who has been detained since her arrest and therefore missed, among other things, the athletics world championships in Doha. For several years, G. has been among the Dutch top in the sprint numbers. She was passionate and trained hard. G. captured national titles at 100 and 400 meters and is with her personal record of 51.12 the second fastest Dutch ever in the 400. Only Lisanne de Witte has run faster. G. was still in the final of the 400 meters at the European Championships in Berlin in 2018.
Dutch relay team
The Amsterdam team was also an important link in the Dutch relay team. She was part of the team that participated in the Rio Olympics on the 4×400 meter. She was also there in May of this year when the team qualified for the 4×400 meters for the World Cup in Doha.
The Athletics Union only heard of the case when G. had been detained for over a month. The union was unable to contact her. Her family refused help. Because G. was no longer training with the relay team, she automatically dropped out of the team.
Since her arrest, hardly anything has come out about motives or other backgrounds in the high-profile drug case. Only known is that G. has changed his lawyer. She is now assisted by lawyer Norman Werner from Oberhausen.
