exclusive
The former Hells Angels rocker Ramin Y. from Mönchengladbach is said to have organized terrorist attacks on Jewish targets in Germany from Iran. Now he has apparently been killed.
Ramin Y. has numerous tattoos on his body. “Iran” is written on his left chest, and under his neck the words “Expect no mercy” are written in English. The decorations are symbols of his time as a rocker, first with the Cologne “Bandidos”, then with the “Hells Angels” in Mönchengladbach. Ramin Y. was a leading member of the groups. Today he is wanted worldwide as a suspect in the murder of another rocker.
Now Ramin Y. himself is said to have been killed. Not in Germany, but in Iran. According to Iranian media reports, the fugitive 36-year-old former rocker was found murdered in his apartment in Tehran last week, apparently shot. Y’s lawyer confirmed to WDR and NDRthat the man is dead. According to Iranian state-affiliated media, Y. is said to have been the victim of an assassination attempt by the Israeli secret service Mossad.
In recent years, the Mönchengladbach native has actually been targeted by the Israelis. The fugitive ex-rocker is said to have organized attacks on Jewish targets in Germany for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard – including an attempted arson attack on the synagogue in Bochum.
Escape to Iran
In September 2021, Ramin Y. is said to have fled to Iran after being identified as the main suspect in the murder of a Duisburg rocker in 2014. He and others are said to have first murdered and then dismembered a traitor from their own ranks. Investigators later found his body parts in the Rhine.
According to German authorities, Ramin Y. has led a luxurious life in Iran in recent years without having any regular employment. Pictures on the social media platform Instagram show him, among other things, with expensive luxury cars.
From rocker to Iranian Secret service agent?
German security authorities assume that Ramin Y. was integrated into the structures of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in particular in the intelligence department of the Quds Force, which is responsible for foreign operations. The Quds Force is held responsible for terrorist actions against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide.
In November 2022, a man in Essen initially fired shots at the rabbi’s house of the Old Synagogue. There was then an attempted arson attack on the Bochum synagogue. The police were able to arrest a suspect, a German-Iranian who was 35 years old at the time. Ramin Y. is said to have instigated the man in a video call in November 2022. Y. is said to have advised the man to wear gloves, cover his face and not take his cell phone with him to the crime scene. WhatsApp messages that the investigators were able to evaluate should prove this. Before the crime, the 35-year-old had met Ramin Y. several times in Iran.
Assassination attempt on behalf of Iran
In December 2023, this 35-year-old German-Iranian was sentenced to a prison sentence of two years and nine months by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court (OLG) for the attempted arson attack on the Bochum synagogue. The court assumed that the attack was carried out on behalf of government authorities in Iran and was orchestrated by Ramin Y. According to the OLG, the aim of the attack was to cause uncertainty and fear within the Jewish population. The assassin’s motive: anti-Semitic sentiments.
The assassin testified in court that Ramin Y. had threatened his family, which is why he carried out the crime. Ramin Y., on the other hand, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he only had a private and business relationship with the man. The fugitive ex-rocker’s lawyer explained: “Mr. Y. denies having given the order and threatening the defendant.”
Ramin Y. is also said to have recruited other assassins
After the verdict, the Foreign Office summoned a representative from the Iranian embassy in Germany and protested against the violent acts apparently commissioned by state authorities of the mullahs’ regime. The Foreign Office wrote on No foreign-controlled violence will be tolerated in Germany.
According to security authorities, Ramin Y. is also said to have recruited other assassins in Germany, sometimes via cell phone chat. It is said to have not only been about attacks on Jewish institutions such as synagogues. The chairman of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, was apparently also supposed to be spied on. According to the German investigators, this is a strategy by the Iranian secret services to also use representatives of organized crime for their own purposes, for example to carry out terrorist acts in Europe.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards are still not listed as a terrorist organization in the European Union.