Karlsruhe (dpa / lsw) - In one of the largest raids against a terrorist organization in recent years, several people were arrested in Baden-Württemberg. The southwest is a focus of the searches against suspected Reich citizens, said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor on Wednesday morning in Karlsruhe. A total of 25 men and women were arrested. There were searches in around 15 urban and rural districts between the Main and Lake Constance. Around 3,000 officers are deployed in a total of eleven federal states. The accused are accused of having prepared a violent overthrow of the state.
According to information from the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" and "Stuttgarter Nachrichten", at least 30 apartments in the southwest of suspected corona deniers and so-called Reich citizens are being searched. In Baden-Württemberg, the focus of the deployment of the special task force (SEK) and evidence preservation and arrest units (BFE) is in the districts of Karlsruhe and Pforzheim.
In Pfinztal-Wöschbach (Karlsruhe district), according to the report in the newspapers, SEK forces forced their way into the house of a suspect after setting off a firecracker to distract himself. The officials had therefore approached the apartment building in an armored vehicle.
Reich citizens are people who do not recognize the Federal Republic and its democratic structures. They often refuse to pay taxes. Often they are in conflict with authorities. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution ascribes around 21,000 followers to the scene.
During a raid in 2016, a so-called Reich citizen shot four police officers in Georgensgmünd, Bavaria. One of them succumbed to his injuries in hospital. The special task force wanted to confiscate the hunter's weapons.
