With a large contingent, the police took action on Wednesday morning against a terrorist organization from the “Reichsbürger” milieu. Nationwide, officials search 150 objects, 25 people are arrested. BKA boss Münch assumes that further raids will follow as part of the investigation.
The President of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Münch, assumes that after the major raid on a “Reich Citizens Group” the number of suspects will increase. Münch spoke on Wednesday evening on ZDF after the 25 arrests on Wednesday of 54 suspects and over 150 searches. It is likely that other suspects will be found and further searches will be carried out in the next few days.
Münch emphasized that the aim of the searches was not to wait until the last moment, but to collect enough evidence that it was a terrorist organization. The coup plans were known, but there is still no clarity about the timing.
However, the BKA president referred to a “council” that makes decisions and a military arm that also procures weapons. Weapons were also found in 50 objects, from crossbows and slingshots to pistols and long guns as well as ammunition. “They don’t wait until the last moment. But when that’s clear, then it’s time to strike.”
According to the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, the authorities were informed early on about the group’s plans for a coup. The group had been observed since the spring of this year and had a very clear overview of their planning and development, Haldenwang said on ZDF. The plans then became more and more concrete and weapons were procured.
“At the point when we had to assume that things could get dangerous now, we naturally also worked directly with the Federal Public Prosecutor and the police authorities,” said Haldenwang. He emphasized: “The German security authorities as a whole had the situation under control at all times. But if it had been up to this group, then the danger was quite real.”
During one of the largest police operations against extremists in Germany, 25 people from the Reich citizen scene who probably wanted to overthrow the political system were arrested on Wednesday. According to the federal prosecutor, they are suspected of having formed a terrorist organization that wanted to use armed force to install a new government and would have accepted the deaths.
