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Police headquarters in Frankfurt am Main (archive image)
Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
Weapons and ammunition have disappeared from the evidence chamber of the Frankfurt police headquarters.
This was noticed during investigations against a Frankfurt police officer because of the violation of official secrets and corruption, who was responsible for the evidence, said the presidium.
"Obvious deficits" are acknowledged in the statement.
The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" had previously reported: It was about more than a hundred weapons and ammunition that had disappeared.
The 41-year-old official is said to have embezzled and then sold weapons that were seized.
A police spokesman said the whereabouts of the weapons should be clarified.
They could possibly have been destroyed without this being properly documented.
The Presidium has had indications of irregularities for a long time.
In September, the internal auditing department received an audit order and working groups were set up after deficiencies were identified.
The suspicious police officer is said to have worked abroad for a private security company from North Rhine-Westphalia without having this secondary activity approved, as announced in September 2020 by the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor and the Hessian State Criminal Police Office (LKA).
He is said to have sold information from illegal queries from police databases to the security company.
At the time, SPIEGEL reported on the case - as well as Wehrmacht symbols and the glorification of the Nazi era at the company's base in Baghdad (read more here).
The police officer was forbidden to continue his official business in August of last year, and disciplinary proceedings were initiated.
According to the police on Friday, it is now being checked whether the 41-year-old will be suspended.
The SPD and the left in the state parliament called for clarification and sharply criticized Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU).
Beuth himself said: "If the serious allegations prove to be true, this man must be permanently removed from the service," Beuth said in a statement.
He criticized the fact that in the Frankfurt Police Headquarters the established internal control bodies in dealing with evidence had obviously failed.
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