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Fake vaccination cards keep popping up (icon image)
Photo: Stefan Puchner / dpa
The public prosecutor's office and the police in Munich have carried out a large-scale raid against suspected vaccination card counterfeiters and buyers.
In the past few days, there have been a total of 50 searches, said the Munich I public prosecutor.
A total of around 80 fake vaccination cards were secured.
106 police officers were deployed on Friday, they found a total of 60 fake vaccination cards and 12 “digital EU Covid certificates” in paper form.
Among the suspects is a woman who was found to have 19 vaccination cards, several batch stickers and a forged stamp from a vaccination center in the Munich district.
According to the investigators, she stated during the interrogation that she falsified and sold vaccination cards with two female acquaintances.
Positive corona test of an accused
One of the suspects was in very poor health after the search.
She later informed the police about a positive corona PCR test.
On Tuesday, 96 police officers were deployed to confiscate 18 fake vaccination cards and five paper certificates.
The suspects' cellphones were seen at the scene.
In some cases, certificates stored in an app were photographed and then deleted.
In other cases, the devices were confiscated to preserve evidence.
The investigators were also busy with similar cases in North Rhine-Westphalia.
More than 200 police officers were on duty in Cologne, Leverkusen and Erftstadt from early Tuesday morning to investigate suspected falsification of corona vaccination and test certificates.
The investigation group "Stempel" searched a total of 40 apartments and a doctor's office, according to the police and the Cologne public prosecutor's office.
A total of proceedings against 46 suspects are underway, as a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor said.
According to the current status, however, there is no connection between the individual cases.
A doctor based in Cologne is accused of having issued vaccination certificates without actually carrying out corona vaccinations.
In further proceedings, the accused are accused of producing fake vaccination certificates or procuring and using fake test certificates or vaccination cards.
cash, gun, drugs
"Numerous, presumably forged" vaccination certificates and test certificates were secured during the searches.
The investigators also found printed digital vaccination certificates.
It still has to be finally checked whether it is a fake, as suspected.
The operations also led to two arrests, which, however, were not related to the proceedings, said the spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office.
It is about violations of the Residence Act.
There were also accidental finds.
In addition to the allegedly forged evidence, the officers also secured cash, a live firearm and marijuana.
bbr/AFP/dpa
