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Police officers use cocaine that was previously taken from traffickers. The companions notice it and close both eyes. Officials denounce innocent citizens and even obtain a judicial sanction. In the scandal surrounding the drug problem at the Munich police headquarters, new details have emerged since Wednesday. They don’t shed a good light on law enforcement officials in the state capital.
As of 6 a.m. on Wednesday, 19 public prosecutors, more than 70 investigators from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) and another 100 officers from the Munich Police Headquarters and the Augsburg Criminal Police Office registered 30 apartments and seven offices of his colleagues in Munich and the surrounding district. This was announced by the Munich prosecutor I. There were also searches in Augsburg, Dachau, Wolfratshausen, Ebersberg and at the police school in Fürstenfeldbruck.
21 police officers and 17 other people are charged. They are accused of violating the Law on Narcotic Drugs and the Anti-Doping Law. According to the prosecution, some police officers are also being investigated on suspicion of persecuting innocent people, violation of custody and obstruction of punishment. The case was entrusted to the “Internal Investigations” department of the LKA.
The matter came to light in February 2020 during a trial against an employee of a noble nightclub in Munich. This should not only have provided drugs to his party’s audience, but also to police officers. Officials from the State Criminal Police Office took over the investigation against their colleagues at the Munich police headquarters. Since then there have been multiple searches, toxicology reports, 20 seized cell phones and 1.6 million chat messages and more than one million image and video files that are currently being viewed.
Meanwhile, the investigations converge on a “Nightlife” research group created in July 2020 at the LKA. The 21 defendants work in nine different departments. Five officers of the nine new defendants, who were now the focus of the investigation, were suspended from their duties, the rest were transferred to the office and other departments, according to the press office of the police headquarters.
The officials had only learned of the raids in the morning through the press release of the Prosecutor’s Office. The action was kept strictly secret until the end, apparently for fear that colleagues might warn the defendant. “Most of the agents deployed learned about the target and the objects in question shortly before the start of the deployment,” the prosecutor said. In addition, special task forces from Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse supported the LKA in the search operation.
Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrä stated resolutely on Wednesday: “For me, the behavior of the police officers involved in this room is absolutely unacceptable and must be punished with all legal severity if the allegations are really confirmed.” said in a statement that the press office of the police headquarters was extended at noon. It relies “on the independent and neutral investigative work of the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, which, together with the Munich Prosecutor’s Office I, will do everything in its power to clarify the facts in the smallest detail” .
The accusation of persecuting innocent people is particularly serious, said the prosecution, Attorney General Anne Leiding. In one case, there were “indications that two persons alleged acts of resistance against police officers that did not actually occur”. Investigations were launched against those innocently persecuted, which were suspended in September 2017 in exchange for monetary restrictions.
After the accusations became known, the leader of the parliamentary group of the Greens in the Bavarian state parliament, Katharina Schulze, demanded a “quick and extensive statement” from the Minister of the Interior, Joachim Herrmann (CSU), in the interior committee of the state parliament. “In addition to unacceptable drug trafficking, allegations of abuse of power by going after innocent people weigh heavily,” Schulze said Wednesday.
The large number of police initiates or involved is also shocking. “A criminal group has obviously formed unnoticed and mostly out of control within the police and covered each other, which also raises questions about leadership skills in authority,” Schulze said. According to Herrmann, six officials were suspended from their duties and could continue more, he told the Bild newspaper.
The head of the German police union in Bavaria, Jürgen Köhnlein, worries about the reputation of the police. “That hurts us. Unfortunately, not a week goes by without negative headlines,” said Köhnlein of the dpa. From time to time, drug investigations are carried out against police officers. “But what really hurts is the security breach.” It is about theft of seized drugs. “What is guaranteed must also be brought to justice.”
