Germany has received its first Arrow 3 missile defense systems from Israel, making it the first country outside Israel to deploy the advanced anti-ballistic weapon. The delivery marks a major step in Germany’s missile defense posture as the country expands its role in European and NATO security. The Arrow 3, jointly developed by Israel Aerospace […]Europol and law enforcement agencies in Germany and Switzerland have shut down one of Europe’s largest illicit crypto-mixing operations, seizing €25 million ($27 million) in Bitcoin and confiscating more than 12 terabytes of user data.
The takedown, announced on December 1, marks one of the most extensive actions yet under the EU’s ongoing effort to dismantle services that obscure the flow of criminal funds.
Europol supports Germany and Switzerland in taking down 'Cryptomixer', seizing EUR 25 million in Bitcoin. This illicit mixing service facilitated money laundering of proceeds from a variety of criminal activities.
— Europol (@Europol) December 1, 2025
Details
The operation took place between November 24 and 28 in Zurich, with Europol supporting authorities on the ground throughout the action week.
Investigators seized three servers, took control of the cryptomixer(dot)io domain, and replaced the site with a law-enforcement seizure banner.
According to Europol, the platform, known as “Cryptomixer,” functioned as a hybrid mixing service on both the clear web and the dark web.
Since its launch in 2016, the service has processed more than €1.3 billion in Bitcoin linked to a wide range of illegal activity.
Authorities say the mixer was used heavily by ransomware groups, underground cybercrime forums, and operators on dark-web markets.
Its software pooled deposits for long, randomized periods, then redistributed funds to new addresses designed to break transaction trails.
This method helped conceal proceeds of drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, payment-card fraud, and cyberattacks, allowing criminals to convert “cleaned” assets back into other cryptocurrencies or fiat currency through exchanges, ATMs, and bank accounts.
Europol coordinated intelligence sharing through its Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce and provided forensic specialists during the raids.
The agency has been involved in several major anti-mixing operations in recent years, including the March 2023 takedown of ChipMixer, then the largest service of its kind.
The shutdown comes as the EU tightens its anti-money-laundering framework ahead of major regulatory deadlines. Under new AML rules tied to MiCA, crypto-mixing services are banned across the bloc, and anonymity-enhancing coins such as Monero and Zcash will be prohibited by 2027.
Crypto-asset service providers are required to apply strict KYC checks, identify the sender and receiver of all transfers, and conduct enhanced due diligence on transactions above €1,000.
These measures aim to close regulatory gaps that have historically allowed laundering networks to operate across borders with minimal oversight.
The enforcement climate around mixers has intensified globally. In January 2025, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted three Russian nationals accused of running Blender(dot)io and its successor, Sinbad(dot)io, mixers the Department of Justice says were used by the North Korean Lazarus Group.
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) January 12, 2025
In November, a New York court sentenced Samourai Wallet co-developer Keonne Rodriguez to five years in prison after prosecutors said the service laundered more than $237 million in illicit funds.
The ruling has accelerated scrutiny of privacy-focused and non-custodial crypto tools.
Notably, Samourai Wallet’s chief technology officer, William Lonergan Hill, was also sentenced to four years in federal prison for his role in the mixer activities.
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) July 30, 2025
The Cryptomixer takedown also arrives during one of Europol’s most active enforcement years in the digital-crime ecosystem.
In October, European investigators dismantled a cybercrime syndicate responsible for creating more than 49 million fake online accounts.
The network provided temporary SIM-based phone numbers that allowed criminals to bypass two-factor authentication and mass-produce fraudulent identities used to exploit exchanges, banks, and e-commerce platforms.
Seven suspects were arrested, and hundreds of SIM servers and routers were seized.
Earlier in June, Europol led raids against Archetyp Market, one of the dark web’s longest-running drug marketplaces.
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) June 18, 2025
Authorities seized core infrastructure in the Netherlands and arrested suspects across Europe, though experts noted that operators often regroup on decentralized platforms.
The post Europol Authorities Bust $1.4B Cryptomixer, Seizing $27M and 12TB of User Data appeared first on Cryptonews.
EUROATLAS, the German advanced defense technologies company, has announced the launch of its new GREYSHARK family of autonomous underwater vehicles, introducing two multi-mission platforms designed for long-range underwater intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The company says the new Bravo and Foxtrot AUVs will provide militaries and critical-infrastructure operators with persistent underwater awareness at a time when […]The United States Army’s 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade and the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command brought together Soldiers, procurement personnel, and commercial technology developers for Project FlyTrap 4.5, a two-week counter-unmanned aerial systems assessment held at Truppenübungsplatz Putlos from Nov. 10 to 21, 2025. The event focused on testing how new systems […]KNDS has officially rolled out the new Leopard 2A8 main battle tank and upgraded PzH 2000 howitzer for the Bundeswehr, along with the Leopard 2A8 variant for the Norwegian Armed Forces, during a presentation held on November 19 at the company’s site in Munich. The unveiling took place in the presence of German Defense Minister […]ARX Robotics has confirmed a major order from Ukraine for its GEREON-series unmanned ground systems, a move that will establish what the company describes as “the world’s largest networked military robotics fleet.” The announcement was made on November 18, 2025, from the company’s headquarters in Munich. According to ARX Robotics, the contract includes the delivery […]German technology companies NEXOS.Group and CR-3D have announced a strategic partnership to integrate industrial-grade additive manufacturing systems into modular automation and mobile production platforms. The collaboration, unveiled at the Formnext 2025 trade show in Frankfurt, is aimed at bridging 3D printing, robotics, and system integration from research to serial production — with applications ranging from […]The State Department has approved a potential Foreign Military Sale to Germany for Standard Missile 6 Block I and Standard Missile 2 Block IIIC systems, along with associated equipment and support, at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has delivered the required certification notifying Congress. According to the announcement, […]The U.S. Army has awarded a new contract to The Boeing Company for the production of up to 60 CH-47F Block II cargo helicopters for Germany, as part of a foreign military sales agreement. The hybrid cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price contract is valued at $876 million and includes performance-based logistics support, training, and non-recurring engineering. According […]MBDA and the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) have signed a contract for the development and procurement of the new DefendAir anti-drone missile system, aimed at countering the growing threat of unmanned aerial vehicles. According to MBDA, the agreement, signed on November 10, 2025, covers the development and […]Bitcoin Magazine
Germany Proposes National Bitcoin Reserve, Views Bitcoin as ‘State-Free’ Money
Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has introduced a proposal to create a national Bitcoin reserve.
The initiative marks a potential turning point for Europe’s largest economy, which only a year ago was criticized for liquidating billions in seized Bitcoin holdings.
The motion, which needs to be approved, would make Germany the first major European nation to integrate Bitcoin directly into its national reserves, signaling a growing shift in Europe toward viewing Bitcoin not as a speculative asset, but as a sovereign reserve instrument.
The AfD’s motion, submitted last week, calls on the federal government to begin accumulating Bitcoin as part of its long-term reserve strategy.
The proposal argues that the EU’s MiCA framework was designed for centrally issued tokens and should not apply to Bitcoin, which has no issuer or central authority.
It urges the government to avoid regulatory burdens on non-custodial wallet providers and Lightning node operators, maintain Germany’s tax exemption on Bitcoin held for more than a year, and ensure that private mining or Lightning activity is not classified as commercial.
The AfD frames Bitcoin as “state-free money” that protects individual freedom in contrast to the planned digital euro, which it warns could enable surveillance and control.
JUST IN:
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) October 29, 2025
In the proposal’s Section I, point 5, the AfD criticizes the German government for failing to recognize Bitcoin’s strategic potential, specifically noting that Berlin has not considered holding Bitcoin as part of its national reserves.
Later in the explanatory section, the document expands on this idea, describing Bitcoin as “Outside Money” and suggesting that, in times of global monetary and geopolitical instability, it could serve as a “potential, easily transferable asset within state currency reserves.”
The motion marks the first formal attempt in Germany’s legislature to position Bitcoin as a strategic national asset.
The proposal comes less than a year after the German government completed one of the largest state-level Bitcoin selloffs in history.
Between June and July 2024, German authorities sold nearly 50,000 BTC — originally seized from the operators of the piracy site Movie2k.to — worth about $3 billion at the time.
The selloff triggered a market correction of roughly 18% and drew heavy criticism from the Bitcoin community, which argued that Germany squandered a chance to hold a scarce, appreciating asset.
By mid-July 2024, blockchain data confirmed that wallets linked to the German government were empty, after sending the final tranches of Bitcoin to exchanges and market makers.
Germany’s move follows closely on the heels of France, where the center-right Union of the Right and Centre (UDR) party, led by lawmaker Éric Ciotti, introduced an ambitious bill to create a “National Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.”
The French proposal targets 2% of Bitcoin’s supply — approximately 420,000 BTC — over a seven-to-eight-year period. It would fund accumulation through surplus energy-powered Bitcoin mining, reallocation of savings programs, and even partial tax payments in Bitcoin.
While both France’s and Germany’s initiatives face significant political hurdles, the timing underscores a recognition in Europe that Bitcoin could serve as a tool for financial sovereignty.
If the momentum continues, Europe could soon find itself not debating whether to hold Bitcoin — but who will hold it first.
This post Germany Proposes National Bitcoin Reserve, Views Bitcoin as ‘State-Free’ Money first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.
Bitcoin Magazine
Aifinyo AG Plans To Accumulate Over 10,000 Bitcoin
German fintech company aifinyo AG (Ticker: EBEN) has announced its ambitious plan to become Germany’s first pure-play Bitcoin treasury company, with a target of accumulating over 10,000 Bitcoin by 2027. The announcement marks a significant milestone for corporate Bitcoin adoption in Europe’s largest economy.
The company has already invested €3 million in Bitcoin purchases, complemented by an additional €3 million investment from strategic partner UTXO Management. Aifinyo plans to convert future operating profits from its B2B payments business into Bitcoin purchases, creating what Garry Krugljakow, the company’s head of Bitcoin strategy, describes as a “self-reinforcing cycle.”
“Within five years at most, every DAX company will have to consider whether they need Bitcoin on their balance sheet – as inflation protection and strategic reserve,” Krugljakow stated. “We’re proving today that it works — with a German business model, German regulation, and a global Bitcoin strategy.”
Aifinyo operates Smart Billment, a digital invoice management platform serving approximately 8,000 B2B customers. This operational foundation provides steady capital inflows for its Bitcoin accumulation strategy. The company’s regulatory framework is particularly noteworthy, as it operates two supervised subsidiaries: aifinyo finance GmbH and aifinyo payments GmbH, with Bitcoin custody handled through institutional cold storage solutions at German custodians.
UTXO Management’s co-founder, Tyler Evans, who made an early decision to invest in aifinyo, noted: “It was high time Germany got a Bitcoin treasury approach of this quality. Here all the factors for success come together: profitable business, experienced management, and a solid regulatory framework.”
The timing of aifinyo’s initiative coincides with growing corporate Bitcoin adoption globally. As of October 2025, publicly traded companies hold over $110 billion worth of Bitcoin, with Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) alone holding approximately 640,400 BTC worth roughly $70 billion.
The company joins the Bitcoin for Corporations initiative, which currently represents 38 member companies holding 69% of all corporate Bitcoin holdings. “Corporate bitcoin adoption continues to expand its global footprint,” said George Mekhail, Managing Director of Bitcoin for Corporations at BTC Inc. “We’re thrilled to welcome aifinyo as the first Bitcoin Treasury company in Germany.”
Aifinyo CEO Stefan Kempf summarized the company’s vision: “We’re building the first German Bitcoin-Maschine. Every invoice our 8,000 customers pay now generates Bitcoin for our shareholders.“
For Germany, traditionally known for its financial conservatism, this development signals a significant shift in corporate treasury management strategies, potentially paving the way for broader institutional Bitcoin adoption in Europe.
aifinyo AG is the member of Bitcoin for Corporations connected to Bitcoin Magazine via shared ownership, as BTC Inc operates Bitcoin For Corporations, a platform focused on corporate adoption of Bitcoin.
aifinyo AG is a portfolio company of UTXO Management, a regulated capital allocator focused on the digital assets industry. Bitcoin Magazine is owned by BTC Inc., which operates UTXO Management. UTXO invests in a variety of Bitcoin businesses, and maintains significant holdings in digital assets.
This post Aifinyo AG Plans To Accumulate Over 10,000 Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Vivek Sen.
A key component of adult-use cannabis legalization in Germany involves ongoing evaluations by researchers and government officials to gauge if the nation’s cannabis policies and regulations are effective. The data derived from the evaluation efforts, especially the EKOCAN project, will be heavily relied upon by German lawmakers when they make future decisions about German cannabis laws and industry regulations.
Several initial evaluation data points and findings have recently surfaced, and the results are favorable. The information from researchers heavily focuses on three main components:
Focus #1: Child and Youth Protection
Regarding the first area of focus, the results of a recent government study found that youth consumption rates have decreased since the first provisions of adult-use cannabis legalization were enacted on April 1, 2024. The German Federal Institute for Public Health recently published data regarding youth cannabis usage rates post-legalization. The “Drug Affinity Study 2025” surveyed 7,001 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 from April to July 2025, and the results were then compared to those from a similar study conducted between April and June 2023.
According to the Federal Institute for Public Health’s assessment of the data before and after legalization, the proportion of youth aged 12 to 17 who reported having consumed cannabis within the last year fell from 6.7% during the survey period in 2023 to 6.1% this year. The proportion of youth who reported having consumed cannabis more than ten times in the past 12 months decreased from 1.3% in 2023 to 1.1% this year. The data effectively debunks predictions by cannabis opponents that adult-use legalization would result in a spike in youth consumption rates.
Measuring public health outcomes as they relate to cannabis policy modernization efforts is somewhat challenging. However, a key measurement comes in the form of surveying consumers to see if they source their cannabis from legal channels. The theory behind using that measurement is that if consumers obtain their cannabis through home cultivation or regulated sources instead of unregulated sources, the products they consume will be safer and thus public health outcomes will be improved. That is the argument that German lawmakers successfully made to obtain European Union approval for legalization.
“The Cannabis Act (CanG) led to significant changes in the supply channels among adults: 88.4% generally purchased legally produced cannabis in the last six months (home cultivation, including cultivation by friends, cultivation associations, pharmacies); before the law, 23.5% used the now legal sources.” stated the Institute for Addiction Research at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and the Evangelical University of Freiburg about a recent collaborative survey they conducted (translated from German to English).
It is worth noting that the reported significant changes in consumer purchasing behavior come at a time when the adult-use cultivation association sector is still experiencing significant bureaucratic hurdles in Germany. According to the most recent data from the Federal Association of Cannabis Cultivation Associations (BCAv), the total number of approved German cultivation association applications is now at 323. BCAv lists that 743 total applications have been submitted to date. Germany’s cannabis community can support exponentially more cultivation associations across the country if afforded the opportunity. The average membership of current German associations is 275 members, according to a recent survey.
Focus #3: Cannabis-Related Crime
The third major focus of ongoing German legalization research and evaluation efforts revolves around how the historic law has impacted cannabis-related crime enforcement in the European nation. According to Jörg Kinzig, Director of the Institute of Criminology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, cannabis-related crime data demonstrates that such offenses have decreased by over 53 percent after legalization was enacted, from 215,000 offenses in 2023 to 100,000 during the last year.
Cannabis opponents in Germany continue to try to thwart forward progress on the nation’s cannabis policy modernization efforts. However, they have seemingly struggled to spin the currently available data in their favor. A full reversal of adult-use legalization, which some opponents have expressed a desire to pursue, is not justified. Some opponents appear to have pivoted their approach to some degree, and instead of pushing for a full reversal, are trying to pursue changes to the law, such as reducing the number of plants that adults can cultivate in their private residences. Adults in Germany are currently permitted to cultivate up to 3 plants.
One major hole that continues to exist in Germany’s legalization system is the lack of approved regional adult-use cannabis commerce pilot trials. Pilot trials are a key component of Germany’s legalization model, and dozens of pilot trial proposals have been submitted and are pending approval from the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food. Pilot trials are already operating in the Netherlands and Switzerland with no major issues reported, and when they are finally launched in Germany, they will provide consumers with more options to source their cannabis products legally. It will further erode Germany’s unregulated market. Pilot trials will also be an important source of additional data for researchers, regulators, and lawmakers in Germany.
All of these topics and facets of Germany’s cannabis public policies, ongoing research efforts, and industry sectors will be discussed extensively at the upcoming International Cannabis Business Conference in Berlin in April 2026.
The post Data Demonstrates That German Cannabis Legalization Is Working appeared first on Cannabis Now.
MJBizCon, slated for Dec. 2-5 in Las Vegas, is the epicenter for deal-making, networking and innovation in the cannabis industry.
MJBizCon sparks cannabis deals and innovation is a post from: MJBizDaily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE / OPINION — The July 2025 sanctioning and indictment by the United Kingdom of three units and 18 individuals affiliated with the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces - the GRU - highlighted clandestine sabotage and cyber operations by that service against communications lines and the Western transport and supply infrastructure critical to Ukraine’s war effort. "GRU spies,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said, “are running a campaign to destabilize Europe, undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens."
In fact, GRU sabotage operations against targets in non-belligerent nations pre-date the current conflict and reflect Moscow’s use of sabotage as a tool of statecraft in both war and peace dating back to the Soviet era. During the Cold War, Soviet and Warsaw Pact planners, led by the KGB and GRU, created detailed lists of Western targets —bridges, power plants, rail hubs, fuel depots, pipelines, and communication lines. These operations emphasized covert acts made to look like accidents, aiming to demoralize adversaries and create political discord within the western alliance. To facilitate such operations, the GRU placed highly trained deep-cover “illegals” in target countries.
Fortunately, such plans were never fully actualized during the Cold War. In the post-Cold War era, we have not been so lucky. One GRU entity sanctioned by the UK - Unit 29155 - is assessed as having been responsible for the 2014 destruction of a shipment of Czech-origin 152mm artillery shells on route to Georgia and attacks that same year on a Czech ammunition depot. Officers of the same unit poisoned Russian defector Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.
The current Russian sabotage campaign is, however, being waged on a far larger – and potentially much more dangerous – scale than previously seen Russian. Since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the GRU has engaged in extensive sabotage designed to disrupt the flow of Western aid to Ukraine, to demoralize that country, and to pressure its allies to reduce their support for Kiev. With a focus on entities supplying the Ukrainian military, these operations have targeted air, rail, maritime, and logistics supply chain, as well as energy infrastructure and undersea cables.
Most alarmingly, in 2024 Western intelligence detected a GRU-backed scheme to place incendiaries in air cargo packages destined for the UK, Poland, and potentially North America. In one incident, a magnesium-based device caused a fire on a plane in Leipzig, Germany. This was a method evolved from Cold War sabotage tradecraft. Other incendiary parcels were intercepted or ignited in warehouses in Poland and the UK. The Poles arrested four persons tied to this operation, which is believed to have been the work of the GRU.
Thankfully, plans to down or destroy civilian aircraft have thus far failed. But such plots—and their exposure—are indicative of Moscow’s willingness to accept considerable operational and political risk in targeting logistics and supply networks delivering Western support to Ukraine. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, this is an existential war. The Russian leader appears prepared to do whatever he believes necessary to hammer out something he can call victory. At minimum, this means establishing Russian control over the Ukrainian districts - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—annexed by Moscow in 2022.
The friction surrounding any intelligence operation can lead to its failure no matter how well planned. But that peril is compounded when the intelligence service concerned has a well-deserved reputation for mounting operations both conceptually imprudent and flawed in their implementation. Soviet and Russian espionage history is rife with GRU operations that failed due to the sloppy tradecraft employed, a reality attested to in extensive open source reporting on that service’s supposedly secret operations by Bellingcat and others.
There can be no doubt that Putin, as a former KGB officer and Director of the Russian FSB, is aware of the GRU’s checkered operational history. The fact that he, nonetheless, sanctioned that service’s sabotage campaign speaks to the importance the Russian leader ascribes to impeding Western military assistance to Ukraine. At the same time, Putin surely also understands that his sabotage campaign might undermine his policy goals. Ongoing GRU sabotage operations – particularly if they result in a high-profile attack – can rebound against Russia’ goal of seeking to undermine Western backing for Kiev. A historical example of a sabotage campaign undertaken against non-belligerent targets by a military intelligence service with less than stellar operational acumen is instructive in this regard.
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Early on July 30, 1916, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history rocked Black Tom Island, located in what is now Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey. A freight terminal and munitions depot storing approximately 2 million pounds of ammunition and explosives awaiting shipment to World War I’s Allied powers (primarily Russia and Britain) blew up with a force that measured between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter scale. Guards had noticed fires breaking out on the pier shortly after midnight. Despite efforts to raise the alarm and call firefighters, the blaze eventually reached massive stores of explosives, triggering the first and largest explosion. Additional blasts followed as the blaze spread through adjacent railcars and barges. Debris and shrapnel rained down across the region, injuring hundreds and sending residents fleeing their homes. Windows up to 25 miles away were broken and the Statue of Liberty was damaged, her torch closed to visitors thereafter. The catastrophe caused over $20 million in property damage (equivalent to over $580 million today). At least three adults and one child are known to have been killed, but some estimates put the toll much higher.
American investigators initially thought the disaster resulted from carelessness. There were, however, suspicions from the outset that it resulted from an act of sabotage perpetrated by German Military Intelligence. The only surprise was how long it took the U.S. to attribute responsibility to the Kaiser’s men given the many operational errors they made while carrying out a sabotage campaign against targets in what was then a non-belligerent U.S.
From the outset of World War I, the Germans were confronted with a conundrum as they sought to keep Washington neutral while at same time closing off the flow of food and war materiel from the U.S. to the Allied Powers. The strategy Berlin adopted – to rely on diplomacy to deal with the former challenge and on sabotage to achieve the latter objective – was mutually contradictory unless those sabotage operations were executed with perfect deniability. Unfortunately for the Kaiser, perfection is unachievable in clandestine operations.
Shortly after the 1914 assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Berlin named the German Ambassador in Washington, Johann Count von Bernstoff, as Germany’s espionage and sabotage chief for the Western Hemisphere. This was not a wise choice. Not only was the Ambassador ill-suited to the task, his involvement in intelligence operations, coupled with Germany’s initiation of unrestricted submarine warfare the following year, hamstrung Bernstoff’s ability to fulfill his diplomatic function as he was thrust into the center of a diplomatic firestorm that grew in intensity and culminated in America’s declaration of war against Germany in 1917. Those chosen to assist the Ambassador likewise proved unsuited to the task.
Military attaché Captain Franz von Papen - who, as Germany’s Chancellor in the early 1930’s, would play a key role in dissolving the Weimar Republic and paving the way for Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor - and Naval attaché Captain Karl Boy-Ed operated brazenly out of a commercial office in New York. They set up a proprietary company which ostensibly did business with the intent of providing munitions to the Allied Powers. Their intent, in fact, was exactly the opposite.
Like the GRU, which has blended sabotage operations with cyberattacks on telecommunication and transportation networks in an apparent attempt to disrupt supply lines and undermine public support for Ukraine, German military intelligence disseminated propaganda to counter information unfavorable to their country. Operatives also manufactured counterfeit U.S. passports for ethnic Germans returning to the Fatherland to fight. Papen and Boy-Ed, however, concentrated most of their attention on directly impeding shipments of munitions and food from America to the Allied Powers.
To that end, the Germans sought to recruit agents to assist with sabotage and subversion operations. Americans of German heritage and Irish-Americans, with their innate disdain for Britain, were particularly susceptible to their approaches. Similarly, as the recent Polish arrest of a Colombian national suspected of involvement in two arson attacks on warehouses in that country attests, the GRU has used third country nationals as well as local recruits in their sabotage operations.
Much like the GRU operatives behind the current sabotage campaign, the inexperience of Papen and his colleagues, as well as the bad tradecraft they employed, were evident from the outset. Their involvement in a plot to dynamite the Welland Canal linking Lakes Erie and Ontario - through which raw material needed to produce American munitions transited - was detected by the New York City Bomb Squad. This was not surprising in that they, among other things, had used material linked to a German firm in constructing the explosive device to be used; used the so-called German Club in New York – an establishment that doubled as a bordello - as a safe house (employing a site of criminality for espionage purposes being an operational faux pas); and used the office of a German-run commercial investigative agency for operational purposes (thus coming under suspicion for the wrong reasons).
The financier for German operations in the U.S., Dr. Heinrich Friedrich Albert, committed the cardinal sins of leading surveillance to a meeting with an agent and then leaving a briefcase filled with telegrams from Berlin, communications from German agents and financial records on a New York tram. Some of the material in the briefcase, which was picked up by an alert surveillant, was passed by the White House to The New York Sun. That paper’s publication of it led to the 1915 recalls of Papen; his colleague, Boy-Ed, and Albert to Germany.
As intended, this press reporting also lent support to President Woodrow Wilson’s previously voiced suspicion that he was “sure the country is honey-combed with German intrigue and infested with German spies.” Although Wilson sought to modestly augment the capabilities of the two agencies then charged with monitoring German spies and agents in the U.S. - the U.S. Secret Service and the predecessor to the modern FBI, the Bureau of Investigation – their capacity to do so remained woefully inadequate. Unfortunately, as has been the case with the current GRU campaign, diplomatic responses and legal sanctions did not deter the Germans.
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Boy-Ed’s successor, Captain Franz von Rintelen, arrived in the U.S. in April 1915 on a doctored Swiss passport. He would prove the driving force behind the sabotage campaign, injecting energy - if not operational acumen - into it. Leading a network of intelligence officers infiltrated into the U.S., Rintelen sought to foment strikes, firebomb shipping, instigate embargoes against the Allied Powers, distribute pacifist propaganda, foment revolution in Mexico, and purchase munitions for the German government. His most important mission, however, was to impede or, if necessary, sabotage shipments of arms and munitions from America to the Allied Powers. Rintelen was clear about his intent, saying: “Munitions are my job - what I can't buy I'll blow up, kaput schlagen!"
He immediately set to work, directing a string of attacks against arms shipments to the Allied powers. Employing a tactic echoed by the GRU, his agents placed cigar-shaped incendiary devices in the holds of ships carrying weapons and munitions. The resulting investigations resulted in several of the saboteurs being identified. Soon, operational friction had begun to catch up with Rintelen himself. His involvement in a wide array of operations meant that the exposure of any one of them could lead to the compromise of all the others. The possibility this could occur was made certain by a string of operational errors.
Those mistakes included Rintelen’s personal interaction with German officials and a German bank even though he was ostensibly working undercover in the same job his compromised predecessor had used; using those banks to move operational funds; exercising minimal operational control over his agents who were subjected to minimal vetting; and using potentially hostile intermediaries - the Russians - to facilitate the diversion of arms being shipped to their country, and then bilking them out of money they paid for the shipment; and conveying covert messages over open communications.
Finally, and sensationally, Rintelen got scammed by the original “Wolf of Wall Street,” David Lamar. The German passed Lamar ca. $350,000 to fund a plan to foment strikes in munitions factories and shipping agencies; to hinder the manufacture and shipping of munitions by attacks on financial institutions and by litigation against pro-Allied businesses; to promote a U.S. peace movement; and to enhance public support for Germany. Only later would Rintelen come to realize that Lamar had swindled him.
In August 1915, with investigators closing in, Rintelen fled the U.S. by ship but was arrested by British authorities during a port call in the UK. Extradited to the U.S. in 1917 after America entered the war, he was convicted on a string of charges to include firebombing a ship, perjury and conspiracy to obtain a U.S. passport. Rintelen spent the remainder of the war in prison.
Rintelen’s departure did not, however, end the sabotage campaign. In February 1916, an explosion initiated by the saboteurs destroyed a munitions plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This was followed by equally effective operations against an armaments factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut and a chemical plant in Cadillac, Michigan. After the successful attack on Black Tom, the saboteurs initiated a fire that destroyed a Canadian factory contracted by Russia to manufacture artillery shells. In February 1917, three Germans were arrested for attempting to (again) sabotage the Black Tom Island facility, which had been rebuilt. Because the April 1917 American entry into the war meant sabotage was no longer an option since the penalty was death to anyone caught in the act, the remaining German saboteurs fled the U.S.
U.S. efforts to seek post-war redress from Germany for the damage wrought by its sabotage campaign – and for Black Tom in particular – underscore the difficulty of holding a nation-state legally liable for its clandestine activities. The post-World War I German-American Mixed Claims Commission sought to assess Berlin’s responsibility and adjudicate indemnities for the consequences of the attack. Weimar Republic lawyers argued there was no evidence incontrovertibly linking German intelligence to it and the Commission ruled in their favor. In 1930, with more evidence of German culpability having come to light, the Black Tom case was re-opened. Once the Nazis came to power, however, the German representative to the Commission resigned when it looked like his country would be implicated in the case. Nonetheless, the Commission declared Germany guilty in 1939 and ordered Berlin to pay 50 million dollars. Unsurprisingly, the Nazi regime did not comply.
Although more evidence convincingly establishing German guilt and detailing the breadth of its pre-World War I sabotage campaign has emerged thereafter, Germany was never held to account for Black Tom. One suspects that, absent the arrest of the GRU operatives involved in the current sabotage campaign should they – like Rintelen – be unwise enough to travel to the UK, it is also unlikely Russia will be held to account for its actions.
The recent GRU sabotage campaign seems to have slowed since reaching its peak in 2023-24, possibly due to better coordination European security agencies and a conscious decision by the Kremlin to scale back operations in deference to discussions between Moscow and Washington about ending the war. With Putin apparently having resolved to continue his war against Ukraine, there is every possibility his security and intelligence services will renew sabotage operations in Europe.
But the UK’s public exposure of the GRU’s activities and U.S. warnings to Moscow that any attack causing an aircraft crash would be treated as terrorism and prompt a severe response are useful to the extent they cause Putin to rein in the aggressiveness of that service’s sabotage operations, thereby hopefully avoiding the repetition of a tragedy on the scale of Black Tom.
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German authorities have dismantled 47 exchange services involved in facilitating anonymous crypto transactions for criminal activities. These platforms bypassed anti-money laundering protocols, enabling cybercriminals to exchange digital currencies without identity verification. The takedown follows a series of other operations targeting major cybercrime networks. With seized user and transaction data, authorities are set to pursue further […]Playstation 5 out of stock worldwide The new Sony console has been pretty much sold...
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