BERLIN, Germany: Investigators have been carefully examining several years of posts from about two dozen group chats on the messaging app Telegram. Authorities believe these chats were used by an online predator network made up mainly of Chinese men who targeted mostly Chinese women in Germany.

So far, the investigation has led to the conviction of three alleged core members on charges including rape. A fourth person was convicted in Berlin on July 8.

However, many key details of the investigation remain unknown to the public. It is unclear how many attacks and offenders are linked to the German Telegram chats, and how these groups – some of which reportedly had tens of thousands of members – were able to operate for so long. It is also not clear whether these chats are connected to a growing investigation in Europe and the Americas into drug-facilitated sexual assaults linked to misogynistic online communities.

The group called itself the "German driving school for experts," but prosecutors say the real purpose of the chats was to boast about raping women and to share advice on how to drug them.

According to court documents, members sometimes posted photos and videos of their attacks on unconscious victims. They used coded language, referring to women as "cars," sedatives as "fuel," and rape as "driving." They also called their victims "dead pigs."

German privacy laws limit what prosecutors can say outside the courtroom, and restrict access to documents. In the ongoing Berlin case, parts of the trial have even been closed to the public.

This may explain why the case has not received as much attention in Germany as might be expected. However, members of the Chinese community in Germany, mostly women, have been attending court hearings to support the victims, even if they do not know them personally.

"What makes one really angry is to see that such groups hate women; they have no respect," said Fu Xiao, who traveled about 500 kilometers (310 miles) to Berlin last week to attend the trial. "Women aren't seen as people."

The network was able to continue operating despite clearly breaking Telegram's rules, raising further questions about how the platform has been used for criminal activity.

In 2024, the app's founder was arrested in Paris over claims that Telegram was being used for illegal activities, including drug trafficking and sharing images of child sexual abuse. He denied any wrongdoing and said the rapid growth in Telegram users had created "growing pains" that made it easier for criminals to misuse the platform. The investigation into this is still ongoing.

Telegram said in a statement that "sexual violence is explicitly forbidden" under its rules and that such content is regularly removed. The company also said it meets all legal requirements, including those under the European Union's Digital Services Act.

However, Telegram did not answer questions about the German cases, including how such content was allowed to remain on the platform for years, whether it was aware of the activity, and whether it alerted authorities.

German Telegram Chats Date Back to 2020

Court documents show that some of the German Telegram chats date back to at least 2020. Lawyer Magdalena Gebhard, who represented a victim in an earlier Berlin case that resulted in a conviction, said there was a core group of eight perpetrators, although some chat groups had as many as 50,000 members.

Police only discovered the network in 2024 after a man in Frankfurt, identified in court as Dapeng Z., changed his behavior. Prosecutors said he moved from drugging and abusing women he knew to targeting strangers he met online.

German police arrested Dapeng Z., who has been described in German and Chinese media as the group's leader, in 2024 with help from Chinese authorities, according to the Chinese consulate in Frankfurt and the Beijing News.

In February, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for aggravated rape, attempted murder, and other crimes. He has appealed the sentence. His lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.