Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub: Ex-RAF members not among those arrested

SEK operation in Berlin
Search for former RAF members: Police cannot find Garweg and Staub

A police operation took place in Berlin-Friedrichshain on Sunday, which, according to the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office, was in connection with the suspected RAF members Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub should stand. The arrest of several people was reported. However, Garweg and dust were not among them, said a spokeswoman for the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA). Those initially arrested have now been released again, according to the LKA Lower Saxony star confirmed the search was over. When asked, the LKA did not provide an exact number of those initially arrested.

Accordingly, the arrests – the LKA speaks of measures restricting freedom – were used exclusively to establish identity. It wasn’t about specific allegations of crime. The Berlin police, the LKA and the Federal Criminal Police Office have now completed their searches of several hours in the area in the Friedrichshain district. Finally, only individual forensics should be carried out, said the LKA spokeswoman.

According to the “Bild” newspaper, the operation took place on a former commercial site where construction trailers were supposed to be parked. Both police officers from Lower Saxony and a police force from Berlin were involved.

The operation began around 7:30 a.m. in a commercial area on the corner of Markgrafendamm and Persiusstrasse. A police spokeswoman initially did not provide any further details. Loud “Mirror” Garweg actually lived on the site in a construction trailer and is said to have stayed there often.

Police suspect ex-RAF members Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub in Berlin

A police spokeswoman confirmed information from the “Bild” newspaper about shots being fired during the operation. It was “the noise of gunshots in connection with a door being opened”. There were no injuries, said the spokeswoman.

The LKA had recently intensified the search for the wanted former RAF members Garweg and Staub in and around Berlin, who are said to have carried out attacks together with the suspected RAF terrorist Daniela Klette, who was arrested at the end of February. The investigators therefore suspect that the two wanted people could be in Berlin.

Search for ex-RAF member: New mug shots of Burkhard Garweg

On Saturday, the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office published new mugshots in the case of the wanted former RAF member Burkhard Garweg. The images were taken between 2021 and 2024 and “very likely showed Burkhard Garweg,” the police said on Saturday and, together with the Verden public prosecutor’s office, asked the public for help.

It was only at the end of February that suspected RAF terrorist Daniela Klette, who was wanted with six arrest warrants after armed robberies, was arrested in her apartment in Berlin. She was taken into custody after being identified through fingerprints. Burdock, now 65 years old, had been wanted for more than 30 years.

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Like Daniela Klette, Staub and Garweg belonged to the third generation of the former left-wing extremist terrorist organization Red Army Faction. During their active time, the then Deutsche Bank boss Alfred Herrhausen (1989) and Treuhand boss Detlev Karsten Rohwedder (1991) were murdered and Herrhausen’s driver was seriously injured. For decades, the RAF was the epitome of terror and murder in the west of still divided Germany. In 1998 it declared itself dissolved. Burdock, Staub and Garweg are also wanted for a series of later cash-in-transit robberies.

Editor’s note: This article will be continually updated.

Sources: Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office, Berlin Police, “Bild” newspaperAFP, DPA, “Mirror”

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