Fugitive ex-terrorists 'on huge crime spree' in north Germany
In their struggle against capitalism they murdered high profile businessmen and politicians. Now three ex-terrorists have taken to robbing supermarkets - and rather successfully, too.
Police in Lower Saxony are hunting three ex-terrorists, whom they accuse of having stolen hundreds of thousands of Euros from supermarkets in northern Germany, Spiegel reports.
The fugitives, Daniela Klette, Ernst-Volker Staub, and Burkhard Garweg were part of the third and last generation of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a terrorist group founded in 1970 which was blamed for over 30 murders, numerous bombings and part-responsibility for the hijacking of a plane in its almost three-decade existence.
The group dissolved itself in 1998 and many of its members have never been identified.
But after almost two decades of silence three of those members have apparently re-emerged to commit a series of audacious thefts.
Authorities now believe the trio have stolen around €380,000 in a crime spree which dating back to last year, after initially identifying them as the culprits behind a failed holdup of a security van.
Officers were drawn to the similarities between several robberies in the Lower Saxony region of northwestern Germany.
In one robbery in October 2015, three masked people attacked a supermarket and managed to make away with €70,000 from the safe.
They later set fire to their getaway car and abandoned it in a forest.
When police tracked down the man who sold them the car he identified Staub as the buyer from a photograph police published a few weeks ago.
Police believe that three other supermarket robberies which took place under similar circumstances were also committed by Klette, Staub and Garweg.
The man who sold the getaway car used in the holdup of the security van in Bremen last June also identified Staub as the buyer.
Experts have said said they did not believe that the three - now in their late fifties - wanted to finance a new terror campaign against the state, but assessed that they were probably trying to fund their lives in hiding.
Comments
See Also
Police in Lower Saxony are hunting three ex-terrorists, whom they accuse of having stolen hundreds of thousands of Euros from supermarkets in northern Germany, Spiegel reports.
The fugitives, Daniela Klette, Ernst-Volker Staub, and Burkhard Garweg were part of the third and last generation of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a terrorist group founded in 1970 which was blamed for over 30 murders, numerous bombings and part-responsibility for the hijacking of a plane in its almost three-decade existence.
The group dissolved itself in 1998 and many of its members have never been identified.
But after almost two decades of silence three of those members have apparently re-emerged to commit a series of audacious thefts.
Authorities now believe the trio have stolen around €380,000 in a crime spree which dating back to last year, after initially identifying them as the culprits behind a failed holdup of a security van.
Officers were drawn to the similarities between several robberies in the Lower Saxony region of northwestern Germany.
In one robbery in October 2015, three masked people attacked a supermarket and managed to make away with €70,000 from the safe.
They later set fire to their getaway car and abandoned it in a forest.
When police tracked down the man who sold them the car he identified Staub as the buyer from a photograph police published a few weeks ago.
Police believe that three other supermarket robberies which took place under similar circumstances were also committed by Klette, Staub and Garweg.
The man who sold the getaway car used in the holdup of the security van in Bremen last June also identified Staub as the buyer.
Experts have said said they did not believe that the three - now in their late fifties - wanted to finance a new terror campaign against the state, but assessed that they were probably trying to fund their lives in hiding.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.