Hundreds of police search objects because of Nazi music: 33,000 recordings seized
Large-scale raid in several federal states and other European countries against right-wing extremist music production.
Quick Look
- During a large-scale police operation against right-wing extremist music in several federal states and other European countries, around 33,000 recordings and assets worth two million euros were seized.
- Four main suspects are in focus.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Investigations into the production and marketing of right-wing extremist music by a suspected criminal organization.
During the large-scale operation involving hundreds of police officers in several federal states against Nazi music, the officers found around 33,000 recordings.
The Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Criminal Police Office (LKA) said this morning that these included CDs, records and cassettes. More than 20,000 of them were found on the four main suspects.
In addition, around 130 storage media, hard drives, cell phones, USB sticks and the like as well as assets worth around two million euros were seized. The four main suspects had around 11,000 euros of this in cash with them.
The investigators' focus during the campaign was music that spread a "National Socialist, anti-Semitic, racist and inhumane ideology".
Four defendants aged 55, 52, 48 and 43 are suspected of having joined forces permanently by 2020 at the latest to produce and market corresponding CDs and records. They are accused of being members of a right-wing extremist criminal organization.
In relation to the four accused, premises in Western Pomerania, namely in Anklam, Bargischow and Klein Bünzow, in Barsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein and in Bad Grönenbach and Wolfertschwenden in Bavaria, were searched.
Manufacturers in other European countries are also being targeted
Searches also took place in Estonia, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic. The recordings were presumably produced there, as it was said on Wednesday. The places searched there were exclusively companies that did not know what kind of music they produced.
There were also searches in Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Thuringia, which targeted eight other suspects. This involves sedition crimes in connection with the recordings.
There were no arrests. According to the information, the searches served to clarify existing suspicions. According to the information, more than 390 police forces from the participating federal states, the federal government and neighboring European countries were deployed under the direction of the LKA Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Right-wing extremist music is much more than supposed entertainment, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Interior Minister Christian Pegel (SPD) said on Wednesday. “It transports hate, creates community, reaches young people in particular and can promote radicalization and networking. That's exactly why we don't look away."
Open Questions
- What specific consequences do the accused face?
- How were the assets structured in detail?