German authorities on Monday, Feb. 2, arrested five people on suspicion of illegally exporting goods worth at least €30 million ($35 million) to Russia, including supplies destined for Russian arms companies, in violation of European Union sanctions, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutors said the suspects used a trading company based in the Baltic port city of Luebeck to organize around 16,000 shipments to Russia over several years.
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The investigation, which included coordinated raids at multiple locations, was conducted by customs authorities in cooperation with Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, the prosecutor’s office said.
According to prosecutors, the procurement network was “presumably operated by Russian state agencies,” with recipients including at least 24 sanctioned Russian arms companies.
Among those arrested was the company’s managing director, identified as German-Russian dual citizen Nikita S. Prosecutors said that since at least the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he and the other suspects repeatedly used the company to clandestinely procure goods for Russian industry and export them to Russia.
To conceal the transactions, prosecutors said the group used additional shell companies in Luebeck, fictitious customers inside and outside the European Union, and a Russian recipient company in which Nikita S. also held a senior role. The aim of the operation was to circumvent EU embargo regulations, though prosecutors did not specify which goods were exported.
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Other suspects were identified, in line with German privacy laws, as German-Ukrainian citizen Artem I., German nationals Boris M. and Eugen R. and German-Russian dual citizen Daniel A. was also detained during raids conducted by the Customs Criminal Investigation Office.
The suspects are accused of belonging to a criminal organization engaged in illegal export activity in violation of Germany’s Foreign Trade and Payments Act.
On Tuesday, four of the suspects are scheduled to appear before an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice, who will decide whether to remand them in custody. The judge will also rule on whether Daniel A. should remain in detention.
Prosecutors said additional searches were carried out in Frankfurt, Nuremberg, and two other locations as part of the investigation, which is also targeting five other suspects who remain at large.