Quds Force spy captured in Germany, says intel agency

Islamic Republic, China, Russia, Turkey are 'key players' of espionage in the federal republic

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Male hands arrested with handcuffs in Criminal concept (illustrative) (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Male hands arrested with handcuffs in Criminal concept (illustrative)
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
German federal police caught a suspected spy for Iran’s terrorist Quds Force in the State of Hesse, according to a review of the new Federal Intelligence Service report released by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s interior minister on Friday.
“In February 2019, the Federal Criminal Police Office carried out an executive measure against a person in Hesse who was suspected of deploying intelligence activities in the Federal Republic of Germany on behalf of the Quds Force. The investigation is ongoing,” the report said.
Germany has long been a hotbed of Iranian regime espionage activities, including dozens of attempts to procure illicit nuclear goods and technology for weapons of mass destruction since the Iran deal was reached in 2015.
Investigations initiated in 2017 by the attorney general against 10 suspected Quds Force agents affected by executive measures in January 2018 were ongoing, the Federal Intelligence Service report said.
The Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Turkey are the “key players in espionage and influence directed against Germany,” federal intelligence officers wrote.
“Spying and fighting opposition movements and actors at home and abroad continue to be the focus of the work of the Iranian intelligence services,” the report said. “In addition, the services in Western countries collect information from the areas of politics and the military as well as business and science.”
The Quds Force is a US-designated foreign terrorist organization. Germany has declined to classify the Quds Force a terrorist entity.
A Pakistani man hired by the Quds Force sought to carry out an assassination attempt either in Germany or France, according to German media reports. In 2017, Pakistani national Mustufa Haidar Syed-Naqfi was sentenced by a Berlin court to four years and three months in prison for “working for a foreign intelligence service.”
Iran’s clerical regime continued its illicit proliferation activities in the federal republic during 2019, according to the southern German State of Baden-Württemberg’s Intelligence Service, The Jerusalem Post reported last month.
According to a section of the new report titled “Proliferation,” “Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and Syria are still pursuing such efforts. They aim to complete existing arsenals, perfect the range, applicability and effectiveness of their weapons and develop new weapon systems. They try to obtain the necessary products and relevant knowhow, among other things, through illegal procurement efforts in Germany.”


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