They ended up stealing money from the collection boxes, liturgical
vessels, bowls and a monstrance. They weren’t able to get their hands on
the Christmas collect because it had already been removed from the
church.
In the following months, numerous churches in the greater Cologne area
were broken into. Sometimes the thieves stole money and all manner of
valuable objects in broad daylight. The police investigated and clues
pointed to the possible involvement of Salafists who intended to use
valuable holy objects from the churches to financially support jihad in
Iraq and Syria. The suspicion was later confirmed by undercover
investigations.
On Wednesday morning, the state prosecutor in Cologne and
the federal public prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe gave the signal:
more than 240 officials mainly in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia,
but also in Lower Saxony and Bavaria began a spectacular raid.
In the North Rhine-Westphalia cities of Cologne, Siegen, Bergisch-Gladbach, Kreuztal and Netphen, they arrested a total of nine suspects,
eight Germans: Mustapha A., 25, Kais B. O., 31, Lazhar B. O., 22,
Sofien B. O., 35, Omar B. O., 25, Anoaur J., 25, Ali Ö., 23, and Usman
A., 29, as well as a Pakistani citizen, Mirza Tamoor B., 58. The
apartments of a further 20 persons on the Salafist scene were searched.
Burkhard Freier speaks of a "swamp" that investigators and the police "drained."
"It’s not the only swamp, but it’s a big one," says the head of North Rhine-Westphalia intelligence. It was a "successful day."
Capturing the 'commuters'
For about a year and a half the state prosecution’s
"Reise" investigating group working in tandem with the federal
prosecution in Karlsruhe has had 44 people on their radar, all of whom
are "Salafist extremists" according to Freier. They are known to both
national intelligence and police and some of them are already on the
wrong side of the law. The 44 persons of interest are mainly German
citizens.
"The arrests and searches show that security officials are on
the ball and are using all legal means to fight extremist Salafists,"
said North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of the Interior Ralf Jäger.
The federal prosecution in Karlsruhe
was involved in the strike against the Salafists, and for its part
issued two arrest warrants. The authorities are accusing Kais B. O. and
Mirza Tamoor B. of supporting terrorist organizations – the ISIS, Ahrar
al-Sham and Junud al-Sham – and of having recruited for the ISIS in
Germany.
Mirza Tamoor B. allegedly turned over to ISIS and Ahrar
al-Sham a total of 3200 euros and a transport vehicle. Investigators are
working on the assumption that Kais B. O. recruited at least three men
from Germany for terrorist jihad in Syria.
According the North Rhine Westphalia intelligence chief, approximately one-third of these persons of interest are so-called commuters
who travel between Germany and the war zones bringing goods and money.
The suspects didn’t only break into churches and schools. They also
raise money supposedly for humanitarian causes directly from clueless German citizens.
At monthly charity benefits that draw hundreds they raise
sums up to six figures, says intelligence boss Freier. "We have to
assume they’ve collected hundreds of thousands of euros and sent them
on, he says.
In North Rhine Westphalia alone intelligence knows
of some 40 extreme Salafist scenes, small groups that work in secret
and are under observation. They are known as "loose networks." A soon as
members start doing anything more than proselytizing and there is the
danger that they will commit criminal acts then the observation goes
undercover.
The most difficult thing is identifying individuals who
get radicalized outside the framework of these groups, says Freier. "At
the moment we don’t have any concrete indications that an attack is
planned in Germany, but we need to stay on the alert because ever more
men are joining the Salafist scene," he adds.
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