German authorities arrest five for illegally exporting goods worth at least €30 million to Russia, including arms firms, in a major sanctions-busting operation.
BERLIN: German prosecutors have arrested five people for illegally exporting goods worth at least €30 million to Russia, including to over 20 arms companies, in violation of EU sanctions.
The suspects allegedly used a company in Luebeck to arrange about 16,000 shipments to Russia in recent years.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office said the procurement network “was presumably operated by Russian state agencies”.
Recipients included “at least 24 listed arms companies in Russia”.
Among those arrested was the trading company’s managing director, German-Russian dual national Nikita S. Prosecutors said he and the others used the company “to clandestinely procure goods for Russian industry and export them to Russia” since at least the start of the war in Ukraine.
“The aim of this operation was to circumvent European Union embargo regulations,” prosecutors added.
The other suspects were identified as German-Ukrainian Artem I., German nationals Boris M. and Eugen R., and another German-Russian dual national, Daniel A.
They face charges of belonging to a criminal organisation engaged in illegal export business.
Raids were also conducted in Frankfurt and Nuremberg, targeting five other suspects who remain at large.
The four main suspects will face an investigating judge on Tuesday, who will also decide on the custody of Daniel A.
The investigation was conducted by customs agents in cooperation with Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND.
