Seven people arrested as German police shut down illegal data centre in former NATO bunker

Record ID: 1433874

  • Title: Seven people arrested as German police shut down illegal data centre in former NATO bunker
  • Date: 27th September 2019
  • Summary: TRABEN- TRARBACH, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 27, 2019) (REUTERS) POLICE STANDING AT GATE TO FORMER MILITARY PREMISES WITH NATO BUNKER POLICE EMBLEM ON JACKET POLICEMEN SURVEILLANCE CAMERA AND BARBED WIRE SIGN READING (German): 'STOP - IDENTIFICATION CHECK. PLEASE HAVE SERVICE AND PARKING CARD READY!' GUARD HOUSE SIGN READING (German): 'PHOTOGRAPHY IS FORBIDDEN' CARS PARKED AT ENTRANCE TO PREMISES MEN WALKING BY OPENED DOOR OF GUARD HOUSE POLICE VAN DRIVING INTO PREMISES POLICE VAN BEHIND FENCE POLICEMEN STANDING AT GATE SURVEILLANCE CAMERA OPEN DOOR VARIOUS OF POLICE AT GATE HAHN, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 27, 2019) (REUTERS) HEAD OF PUBLIC PROSECUTION AND MEMBERS OF NATIONAL BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS RHINELAND-PALATINATE ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS RHINELAND-PALATINATE TALKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (German) PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS RHINELAND-PALATINATE, JOHANNES KUNZ, SAYING: "I consider it a huge success - and I have to say it clearly - that our police forces have managed to get into the bunker system, which is still secured on the highest military level. And we had to overcome not only real and analogue security measures, but we have also to get into the digital security measures of the data centre." OFFICIALS SEATED BEHIND LAPTOPS KUNZ SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (German) PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS RHINELAND-PALATINATE, JOHANNES KUNZ, SAYING: "The bullet-proof host, which we have broken up in an operation yesterday evening and taken off-line, has run this data centre in a former NATO bunker for a longer period. This bunker - in the national bureau of criminal investigations we also call it 'the cyber bunker' - is located in Traben-Trarbach." KUNZ SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (German) PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS RHINELAND-PALATINATE, JOHANNES KUNZ, SAYING: "The bunker is equipped with highest security standards, which are supposed to prevent state institutions from accessing the data centre. This is what the provider advertises with and offers clients to use the services for everything except terrorism and child pornography." REPORTER TYPING KUNZ SEEN IN CAMERA VIEWFINDER (SOUNDBITE) (German) HEAD OF PUBLIC PROSECUTION, JUERGEN BRAUER, SAYING: "As far as we know it is the first time in Germany that an investigation is taking place not against the operators of shops and market places, but the ones, who make these kind of criminal offences possible. Against the people who provide the necessary infrastructure. Concretely this means the providers of a big and as you will see later, very big data centre, provided with computers, which are needed for the criminal offences of others." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (German) HEAD OF PUBLIC PROSECUTION, JUERGEN BRAUER, SAYING: "Besides a tax offence the seven accused are suspected of membership in a criminal organisation as well as being accessories to hundreds of thousands of offences involving drugs, counterfeit money, forged documents, data handling and the distribution of child pornography." NEWS CONFERENCE ONGOING
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2019 14:27
  • Keywords: cyber crime NATO bunker illegal data centre criminal investigation arrests police operation
  • Location: TRABEN-TRABACH, HAHN, IN AIR; GERMANY
  • City: TRABEN-TRABACH, HAHN, IN AIR; GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA001AYFLSUF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:German police shut down an illegal data centre in a former NATO bunker located in western Germany on Friday (September 27) and arrested seven people suspected of membership in a criminal organisation as well as being accessories to hundreds of thousands of offences involving drugs, counterfeit money and child pornography.
    "I consider it a huge success...that our police forces have managed to get into the bunker system, which is still secured on the highest military level," Johannes Kunz, President of the National Bureau of Criminal investigation in Rhineland-Palatinate, told reporters at a news conference in Hahn.
    According to investigators the former NATO premises in Traben-Trarbach were acquired in 2013 by a Dutch man and turned into a huge data processing centre.
    "As far as we know it is the first time in Germany that an investigation is taking place not against the operators of shops and market places, but the ones, who make these kind of criminal offences possible," said Juergen Brauer, head of public prosecution.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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