RAF investigations: Weapons and money – thousands of RAF exhibits secured

Military weapons, ammunition and money: Investigators have seized several thousand items of evidence in the apartment of former RAF terrorist Daniela Klette in Berlin. Among other things, they found a Polish assault rifle, a Czech submachine gun and a deceptively realistic-looking bazooka, according to the Verden public prosecutor’s office and the Lower Saxony State Office of Criminal Investigation. The investigators assume that Klette and her accomplices used these weapons and the dummy in robberies.

The former RAF trio Daniela Klette, Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg are said to have stolen around 2.7 million euros in the robberies – also with the help of the weapons, investigators said. They are said to have fired at least one of the two weapons in order to threaten the victims of their crimes with death or to force them to act.

Trio is said to have intimidated their victims with the weapons

Investigators suspect that the trio used the weapons, for example, in a robbery of a cash transport truck in Cremlingen, east of Braunschweig, in June 2016. At that time, a passenger in a cash transport truck was violently taken hostage. After firing a shot at the cash transport truck, the driver opened the vehicle and the perpetrators were able to escape with the loot.

According to investigators, the dummy resembles a bazooka that was developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and used in various wars, among other things, as an improvised anti-aircraft weapon. The replica is partly made from original parts, so it is almost indistinguishable from a real weapon. Klette, Staub and Garweg are said to have used it to intimidate and threaten their victims in several attacks.

Investigators assume that the dummy and at least one of the military weapons were used in a robbery of a cash transport truck in Stuhr, south of Bremen, in June 2015. The trio is said to have threatened the money couriers with a bazooka and an assault rifle. They are said to have tried to get the men to open the vehicle by firing multiple shots at the cash transport truck. Two shots from the assault rifle penetrated the driver’s cabin, but the money couriers remained unharmed. The perpetrators eventually fled without taking anything.

Investigations into attempted murder and several robberies

Since 2015, the Verden public prosecutor’s office has been investigating Daniela Klette, Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg for attempted murder and attempted and completed aggravated robbery in several cases. Klette was arrested in Berlin-Kreuzberg at the end of February, and the search for Staub and Garweg is ongoing. They belonged to the so-called third generation of the left-wing extremist Red Army Faction (RAF). In 1998, the RAF, which killed more than 30 people, declared itself disbanded.

After Klette’s arrest, investigators also confiscated more than 450 rounds of ammunition requiring a permit, a blank-firing revolver and two stun guns. One of the stun guns may have been used during a robbery of a supermarket in Osnabrück in January 2015 to persuade two victims, one of whom was heavily pregnant, to open a safe.

The authorities also seized more than 240,000 euros in cash and more than a kilogram of gold. According to initial findings, at least part of this sum was obtained during the robberies. The investigators suspect that Daniela Klette exchanged large sums of cash from the robberies. The evidence also included sticky beards, wigs, sticky sideburns, as well as ski masks, balaclavas and fabric masks to conceal their identities. The trio is also said to have used a mobile blue light system, handcuffs and a radio jammer during their crimes to make it easier to escape or, in one case, to restrain a victim using the handcuffs.

Investigators ask public for help

The investigators have now published photos of the evidence in the hope of receiving clues. They are turning to the public with several questions – for example, who can provide information about the finds, where the weapons came from and where they were used.

After the publication of pictures of Ernst-Volker Staub at the beginning of July, a double-digit number of tips have already been received, which the investigators are now examining. The Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office and every police station are accepting tips, and information can also be provided anonymously via an online portal.