Ringleader” in custody
Raid against Germany’s right-wing extremist music scene
October 26, 2023, 5:59 p.m
Right-wing extremist bands are very popular in the scene. It is not uncommon for the inhumane content to radicalize people. The police now claim to have succeeded; an arrest warrant is being executed against a 34-year-old.
The police have taken action against the right-wing extremist German music scene with a raid in six federal states and in Spain. A 34-year-old main suspect was arrested, as the public prosecutor’s office in Celle and the police department in Oldenburg announced. This and eleven other suspects are being investigated on suspicion of producing and distributing hateful right-wing extremist music.
According to investigators, the nationwide perpetrator group is said to have distributed the criminally relevant music nationally and in some cases internationally. Specifically, it was about “inhumane, anti-Semitic and inciting texts” that could promote right-wing extremist ideas and violent actions, it said.
“An arrest warrant was executed against the 34-year-old suspected ringleader from Lower Saxony,” the authorities said. The eleven other defendants, aged between 36 and 59, are accused of various crimes. They are said to have been involved in graphic design, sound engineering or the sale of the recordings. The suspects are mostly from the right-wing extremist scene.
CDs and records confiscated
During the raid, around 250 emergency services searched three buildings in Lower Saxony as well as other properties in Hamburg, Berlin, Thuringia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. Searches were also underway on the Spanish island of Mallorca. It was said that tens of thousands of CDs and records were confiscated. The evaluation of the evidence, including electronic data carriers, is ongoing.
According to the information, the searches also served to confiscate assets. Asset arrests have been ordered against four alleged suspects. The proceeds from the record sales are therefore estimated at around 200,000 euros.