In April 2022,[1] October 2022,[2] and February 2025[3] several raids took place as part of an investigation into the editors of the German anarchist newspaper Zündlumpen, published from 2019 to 2021. In February 2025 two people, N. and M., were arrested: they were accused of being editors of Zündlumpen and suspected of having committed arson.[4]
In April 2022 a raid on a print shop took place in which police seized thousands of books, zines, and newspapers, as well as all printing equipment and materials, apparently in an attempt to disrupt the printing capacity of local anarchists.
N. and M. are currently imprisoned pending trial.
Techniques used
Name | Description | |
---|---|---|
Detection dogs | In some of the raids, police used detection dogs to locate electronic devices.[3] In the February 2025 arrests of N. and M., scent samples were collected from their necks and presented to a detection dog.[4] | |
Forensics | ||
DNA | In some of the raids, DNA traces were collected from a cigarette butt,[5] zines,[6] books, doors, cups, and printing machines. | |
Linguistics | Investigators compared texts from the newspaper Zündlumpen with private letters found in house raids, hoping to prove that people had written in the newspaper.[6] | |
Physical surveillance | ||
Covert | Investigators followed N. for 15 days.[6] | |
Police patrols | Investigators sent a police patrol outside a N.'s apartment every night at irregular times to check if she was at her apartment.[6] | |
Service provider collaboration | ||
Other | Investigators used the collaboration of banks to:[6]
Investigators asked several companies to provide information about N.:
| |
Targeted digital surveillance | ||
Authentication bypass | In some of the raids, police seized smartphones immediately after entering and plugged them into power banks, presumably to prevent them from shutting down and reverting to an encrypted state.[1] The February arrests of N. and M. took place in a public library, while N. and M. were using a computer.[4] Police officers wearing civilian clothes waited until N. and M. had unlocked the computer to reveal themselves and make the arrest, presumably to access the computer while it was unlocked. | |
IMSI-catcher | Investigators used an IMSI-catcher to identify the phone number of N.'s mother. They used it both at the mother's home and at her workplace: the correlation of the two uses allowed them to identify the phone number.[6] |