Four soldiers and a police officer are believed to be among the members of a suspected far-right extremist group targeted by recent German raids, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Two active and two former soldiers with the German armed forces as well as a federal police officer were among those targeted in Tuesday’s operation, a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in the northern city of Celle confirmed to dpa upon request.
He did not provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
German investigators seized a number of weapons on Tuesday while carrying out raids across three states targeting what they believe to be an armed far-right extremist group.
Some 14 properties were searched across Lower Saxony in northern Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia in the west and Baden-Württemberg in the south-west, prosecutors and criminal police in Lower Saxony said.
Eight suspects aged 32 to 57 are believed to have formed an armed group based on far-right extremist beliefs. Four of them are believed to have illegally possessed military weapons and other fully automatic firearms, according to the statement.
In one case, criminal police seized a pistol including ammunition back in April, the statement said.
Officers seized a number of short and long firearms, according prosecutors in the Lower Saxon city of Celle.
The weapons were loaded, but initial findings indicate that they are not subject to the War Weapons Control Act.
Investigators also found ammunition, cash and items that could be used as explosives, according to the statement.
Prosecutors said the aim of the raids was to seize the weapons as well as gather further information about the group’s activities.