Sabotage at coal power stations: 48-year-old from Gevelsberg arrested
A 48-year-old man was arrested in North Rhine-Westphalia after sabotaging several electricity pylons with homemade rockets. Interior Minister Reul describes him as a lone perpetrator.
Arrest following series of attacks on power grid in three German states
Following a series of sabotage acts against high-voltage power lines in North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony, police arrested a 48-year-old suspect on Tuesday. According to tagesspiegel.de, the man from Gevelsberg in the southern Ruhr Valley was spotted near Weisweiler power station near Aachen and taken into custody without resistance.
When arrested, the man was carrying explosives. "The objects are currently being examined by an explosives expert from the State Criminal Police Office North Rhine-Westphalia," Cologne police said. Emergency services found additional explosive charges in a tent near the power station.
Homemade rockets, short circuits, power plant blocks shut down
According to investigations, the suspect set up launch devices at several crime scenes and fired homemade rockets carrying conductive material over high-voltage power lines. He succeeded at least twice in triggering short circuits and disabling individual power plant blocks.
The first known attack occurred around a week ago near Jänschwalde brown coal power station in Brandenburg. According to transmission network operator 50Hertz, more than 20 homemade rockets were fired carrying conductive wires over the high-voltage power lines, resulting in two short circuits and the failure of one power plant block.
Shortly afterwards, investigators discovered further launch devices in North Rhine-Westphalia and 21 devices in eastern Saxony near transformer stations. In Bergheim near Cologne, the apparatus apparently worked: several blocks at the RWE Power facility were taken offline for several days due to a short circuit, according to the operator.
Search focused on Weisweiler
Investigation efforts had recently focused on Weisweiler power station in the Rhineland brown coal region. Police had already conducted large-scale searches of the area the previous week after the site was mentioned in a confession letter attributed to the 48-year-old. On Monday, there were further suspicious observations on site: officers found additional launch devices and a third confession letter.
Around 21:00 that same evening, emergency crews observed flashes and banging noises, which had also been recorded at other crime scenes. No damage was reported. The Hambacher Forest near Cologne was also searched after police suspected the suspect might be there.
On Tuesday, the search continued. Several hundred officers combed the terrain, supported by a drone with thermal imaging camera. Motorway police finally spotted the man on a field path near the power station.
Interior Minister Reul: "This game has ended today"
North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) spoke in Duisburg about the conclusion of the operation. "He was still on the move and wanted to continue. This game has ended today," said Reul. "At the moment, everything points to this being a lone perpetrator and everything from his hand."
Brandenburg's Interior Minister Jan Redmann (CDU) described the suspect as a "misguided lone perpetrator" and announced consequences for the security of critical infrastructure. "It takes more than one chaos agent to throw Germany into chaos," he said. The Brandenburg police headquarters said it currently has no indication of further perpetrators.
Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) had previously classified the series of attacks as apparent "climate terrorism" by a lone perpetrator.
Confession letters referring to fossil fuels
In several confession letters which police attribute to the 48-year-old and consider authentic, the alleged perpetrator justified the attacks with a campaign against fossil fuels. "Electricity generation from fossil fuels is a crime," the letters state, which are also available to the German Press Agency. The suspect allegedly drew investigators' attention to several crime scenes through clues in his letters.
The three affected states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony continue to extract brown coal and use it for electricity generation.
Investigations at Cottbus Public Prosecutor's Office
The 48-year-old is being investigated on suspicion of causing an explosive device to detonate and disrupting public services. Further investigations are being handled by the Cottbus Public Prosecutor's Office, as the first known act took place in Brandenburg.
Source: Google News DE — Crime (de)