Suspected saboteur caught after manhunt

After a manhunt lasting several days, the police arrested the 48-year-old man who is said to be responsible for acts of sabotage on substations and power lines in several German federal states. As ZEIT learned from security circles, the man captured is said to be Daniel V., who was previously wanted. He was therefore caught near the Weisweiler power plant near Aachen. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and Westdeutsche Rundfunk, among others, had previously reported on the arrest.

Last week, unknown persons carried out acts of sabotage against substations in Bergheim near Cologne and in Jänschwalde in Brandenburg. Evidence of further planned attacks was subsequently found in Dormagen and Weisweiler. A few days later, the police announced that they were looking for a man who was said to be responsible for the acts of sabotage. According to a search call published on Saturday, it was a 48-year-old, of whom the police published two photos.

Letters claiming responsibility contain details on how to proceed in the event of attacks

In the past few days, letters of confession have become public that contain detailed information about the suspect's actions. He is said to have tried to use self-made rockets to shoot a thin wire over high-voltage lines in several places and thus trigger a short circuit. He was successful in at least two cases: In Bergheim, west of Cologne, several units of a power plant were paralyzed for days due to a short circuit, and there were two short circuits in the Turnow-Preilack substation in Brandenburg.

According to police, another letter of confession was found near Weisweiler on Monday along with several devices for launching homemade explosive devices. According to ZEIT information, launching devices that were found in Saxony have the same design as devices in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg.

Fight against fossil fuels as a suspected motive

According to ZEIT information, several indications indicate that Daniel V. could actually be the person responsible for the series of attacks. Accordingly, he had never been associated with extremism in the past, but is said to have broken off contact with several relatives about a year ago.

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) recently said that the series of attacks was obviously “climate terrorism” by a lone perpetrator. The letters of responsibility state, among other things, that generating electricity from fossil fuels is “a crime.” Brown coal is still being mined and converted into electricity in all three affected federal states.