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CRIME

Spider smuggler caught in US sting operation

US authorities have arrested a German man for smuggling hundreds of tarantulas and other spiders into the country, after mounting a sting operation to catch him.

Published: 4 December 2010 09:45 CET
Spider smuggler caught in US sting operation
Some of the spiders siezed by authorities. Photo: DPA

Sven Koppler, 37, was arrested on Thursday after arriving in Los Angeles to meet an associate, following a nine-month investigation imaginatively dubbed ‘Operation Spiderman.’

The probe began in March when customs officers found 300 live tarantulas during a routine search of a package.

US Fish and Wildlife agents then intercepted a second package containing nearly 250 live tarantulas in plastic containers, as well as 22 Mexican red-kneed tarantulas.

In a bid to catch the organisers red-handed, agents posed as buyers and ordered more tarantulas from Koppler, who walked straight into their web and sent a package containing 70 live ones and one dead spider.

Koppler, from Wachtberg near Bonn, allegedly earned around $300,000 from tarantula sales to spider fanciers in dozens of countries, including nine in the United States.

According to an affidavit, a number of the packages included spiders whose import was in breach of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

If found guilty, he could face 20 years in jail and a fine of $250,000, according to prosecutors.

“Sending light and small packages containing tarantulas is the best way to avoid customs detection around the world,” Koppler allegedly claimed in email exchanges with an undercover US agent.

Koppler added that he could in theory smuggle tarantulas in his luggage when flying to Los Angeles, and would not be caught nine times out of 10. But he preferred not to take the risk.

“I am a foreigner and they will probably put me in prison. You have special laws. You have other laws that we don’t have,” in Germany, he said, according to the affidavit.

AFP/DPA/hc

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CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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