Shiny_Flakes: The real story behind “How to Sell Drugs Online: fast”
True crime documentaries have exploded in popularity in recent years, and Netflix has hosted some of the best in the genre.
Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord is a bit different from other true crime documentaries, however, as Maximilian Schmidt’s story actually inspired a Netflix drama series all its own, How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), which recently returned for a third season.
Maximilian Schmidt’s story is almost too incredible for a TV series, but what happened to ‘Shiny Flakes’ and where is he now?
Shiny Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord
Release Date and Synopsis
Shiny Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord arrived on Netflix on August 3, 2021, one week after the release of the third season of How to Sell Drugs Online: Fast
The feature-length documentary tells the true story of Maximilian Schmidt, known by his online alias Shiny_Flakes, who built an online drug empire from his childhood bedroom.
In February 2015, at the age of 19, Maximilian was arrested for selling 4.1 million euros worth of drugs over the course of 14 months.
To this day, however, German police still don’t know where most of the money is, as Schmidt traded in Bitcoin and there are reportedly two Bitcoin wallets that police have been unable to access.
What happened to Maximilian Schmidt?
After his arrest, Maximilian Schmidt confessed to his crimes and in August 2015 he was sentenced to seven years in a juvenile prison as he showed emotional immaturity and was therefore tried as a juvenile.
Prior to his arrest, Maximilian made two key mistakes that drew the attention of Leipzig police, according to Vice.
The first of which was accidentally putting the wrong address on one of his packages, because when the package was returned, it was opened to find the drugs inside.
And the other was that he used the same postal station for his deliveries, located not far from his home and in view of CCTV cameras.
Many of Maximilian’s assets were seized after his arrest, including the computer where he conducted most of his business and which also contained a record of thousands of his clients.
Once police were able to access Schmidt’s computer, they found the database and subsequently more than 4,000 criminal cases were opened.
As a result, Maximilian was summoned to hundreds of trials as a witness for those who had allegedly purchased drugs from his site and attended many of the trials on his day off.
Schmidt was released from prison in June 2019 after serving just over half of his seven-year sentence.
Where is Shiny Flakes now?
Maximilian Schmidt is currently under investigation for a new alleged crime.
As the final moments of the documentary detail, several people were arrested in August 2020 in connection with a drug bust in Leipzig.
The documentary Shiny Flakes shows that in March 2021, Schmidt was placed under a new investigation as he was allegedly one of several people behind a new drug selling website.
At the time of the documentary’s release on August 3, the process of the investigation is still ongoing and, as the documentary makes clear, Maximilian has not yet been officially charged with any crime.
If he is charged, innocence is presumed until the conclusion of the trial.