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Raid on October 12th in Aldenhoven
Photo:
Ralf Roeger / dpa
The police found significantly more radioactive substances than previously known in a Bundeswehr officer who was arrested several weeks ago. The officers also seized highly toxic potassium cyanide. Investigators discovered not only strontium-90, but also the radioactive substances thorium and americium, in addition to an extensive arsenal at Captain Michael C.'s in Aldenhoven near Aachen in mid-October. Cyanide was also found in C., which he apparently had produced himself.
To this day, the investigators are puzzling as to why the captain hoarded the dangerous substances.
The military intelligence service MAD had not noticed C. before the police raid.
In the Bundeswehr he was deployed in a unit that analyzes terrorist explosive devices.
The civil investigators found C. when he wanted to send a silencer for a machine gun from the Second World War to the USA.
The public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt, which had successfully applied for an arrest warrant against C. after the search, did not want to comment on the new details because of the ongoing investigation.
C.'s defense was unavailable for comment.
According to a note from the Ministry of Defense, investigators discovered a kind of armory in C's house in Aldenhoven in mid-October.
It contained Kalashnikov rifles, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, as well as a number of defused grenades and ammunition.
Most of the material is said to come from the former Eastern Bloc and not from the troops' holdings.
amp / srö / mgb