BERLIN (AA) - German police arrested leading members of a far-right group for conspiring to kidnap the country’s health minister and planning major terror attacks, local media reported on Thursday.
The group known as "Vereinte Patrioten" (United Patriots) was hoping to obtain new weapons this week, before moving forward with its plan to kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, and carry out coordinated bomb attacks to create nationwide chaos, public broadcaster ARD reported.
German prosecutors in the city of Koblenz have confirmed, without disclosing any names, that “the kidnapping of well-known public figures was part of the plans” of the group members.
The group, which included anti-vaxxers and followers of the far-right Reich Citizens movement, used the encrypted chat app Telegram for communication and planned bomb attacks targeting the country’s energy infrastructure to cause a massive blackout in Germany.
The goal of the suspects was to spark “a civil-war-like situation” and ultimately overthrow the democratic system in Germany, the prosecutors and police said in a joint statement.
Four members of the group were arrested on Wednesday, after coordinated raids in nine federal states, including Rheinland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony, and Brandenburg.
The police seized a Kalashnikov rifle, more than a dozen firearms, ammunition, as well as various electronic devices, documents, fake vaccination certificates, and coronavirus test reports, according to the statement.