Investigators find 40 semi-automatic weapons in an earthen bunker. Stolen from a train at Mesh. There is great disgust when the officers see and smell what the perpetrators are probably using as a cover.
Hamburg/Hannover/Nuremberg - In March, according to initial investigations, perpetrators stole eight boxes containing a total of 40 semi-automatic long guns from a container at the marshalling yard in Maschen, south of Hamburg. Their hiding place is an earthen bunker in a forest near the crime scene. But after a tip from Bavaria, the authorities quickly tracked down two 49 and 30 year old suspects. An arrest warrant has already been issued against her. Representatives of the Hanover Federal Police Directorate and the Lüneburg public prosecutor's office announced these findings at a press event in Hamburg on Friday.
The stolen weapons, which according to the information have a total value of 46,000 euros, were probably intended to be sold on the Darknet. “The success lies in the fact that we prevented these weapons from falling into criminal hands anywhere,” said operations manager Helgo Martens from the Federal Police. “That would certainly have been a scary threat.” The seized weapons were wrapped in blue plastic bags.
According to the information, the container came from China and was transported via the port of Hamburg by rail towards southern Germany. The target was a weapons company, as Wiebke Bethke from the Lüneburg public prosecutor's office explained. It was a legal transport of weapons.
“The stolen goods are fully functional firearms that are externally similar to the M16 assault rifle,” the federal police said. Martens emphasized that the stolen weapons were not weapons of war because continuous fire could not be established.
The investigators described the events of the past few weeks in detail: The theft was discovered on March 20th at the transshipment station in Nuremberg. A security worker discovered that a container on a freight train had been opened illegally. According to the research, this must have happened in mesh. The container was temporarily stored there between March 16th and 19th.
The investigation revealed that, according to the public prosecutor's office, the weapons were still in a bunker near the crime scene. There is some evidence to suggest that the perpetrators camouflaged this depot with dog feces, reported Martens from the Federal Police. “Because it was unnatural how many piles there were. That was pretty disgusting for everyone involved.”
Investigators waited patiently for suspects to return. “We needed a lot of patience before we could detect people there in the early hours of April 6th,” said Martens.
The two unarmed detainees offered no resistance. According to investigators, they originally came from Belarus and lived in nearby Seevetal (Harburg district). According to the information, they were not known to the police in Germany. “The accused have so far made use of their right to refuse to testify,” said Bethke. Evidence was found, such as gloves believed to have been used in the crime, it said. Now it must be clarified whether other perpetrators were involved.
When asked how it was that the perpetrators were able to get weapons so easily at the marshalling yard, the public prosecutor replied: “Whether these weapons were transported properly will definitely be the subject of further review proceedings.” dpa