Here is the report from the FAZ website on the same incident:
Right-Wing Skinhead Group Is Busted
By Peter Carstens Right-Wing Skinhead Group Is Busted in Scenic Saxony
DRESDEN. The Jacobi family was well-respected in Schöna-Reinhardtsdorf, the town located in one of Germany's most scenic regions, which is known as "Saxon Switzerland," a remote, hilly region of Saxony that has attracted hikers, poets, artists and tourists for centuries. Michael Jacobi, a plumber from nearby Kleingiesshübel, repaired people's pipes and, as town councilman, was concerned with the welfare of his fellow citizens. One of his two sons worked with him. The other worked as a clerk at the local savings bank, where he was known as an "active and very committed colleague." No one thought he was involved in political extremism. But now, both father and son -- suspected of belonging to the leadership of the largest right-wing extremist group ever uncovered in the state of Saxony -- are in prison pending their respective trials.
Arno Suddars, the mayor of this town near the Czech border, is dumbfounded. He says fellow party member Mr. Jacobi always seemed "calm, sober and aware of his duty" in the Free Voters Association party and in the town council. He was also not known to express radical views. And, by the way, the mayor added that the area's biggest problem was "the many people illegally crossing the unmonitored part of the border, with cars constantly being stolen and then abandoned somewhere or driven against a tree."
But Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA) say there is another, possibly bigger problem in Saxon Switzerland: right-wing extremism.
Starting at 6 a.m. last Saturday, 250 officers searched more than 50 apartments in the county. Authorities suspect 51 persons of being members of a criminal association. The suspects allegedly belong to the inner circle of a well-organized group calling itself Saxon Switzerland Skinheads (SSS). Two kilograms of explosives, high-explosive grenades, live ignition devices and parts of rockets, among other items, were discovered during the early morning searches. And, in Michael Jacobi's garage, police found parts from pistols, rifles and bazookas as well as large amounts of ammunition. In the raid, police also confiscated large quantities of propaganda material and computers. Lothar Hofner, the spokesman for the state office of criminal investigation, said the office hopes the computers' hard disks will provide data on the structure, deeds and financing of the organization.
The LKA and the BfV say their information indicates the "Saxon Switzerland Skinheads" group was founded in 1996 by former members of the far-right Viking Youth, which was banned throughout Germany in 1994. According to the BfV, the hierarchical SSS has about 300 sympathizers, with a core of dues-paying members integrated in solid, "highly organized structures." The group has staged paramilitary exercises, including "Operation Alpha," which the LKA has described as a simulation of the hunting down of foreigners on the grounds of an abandoned factory.
An increase of crimes with right-wing extremist motivation in the area around Pirna -- which calls itself the "gateway" to the region on its homepage in the Internet -- drew the attention of police, who last year initiated a special investigation called "Elbe River Sandstone." Police noted that the SSS was making major efforts to recruit young people and that the activists posed as "neighborhood helpers" (which was mostly tolerated, if not outright welcomed, in the area).
The spokesman for Pirna's savings bank, Andreas Rieger, mentioned in this connection that the 21-year-old Jacobi son, whose employment contract is limited, voluntarily took part in the company's after-hours marketing activities -- for example joint projects with the youth welfare office. Mr. Rieger said he had found the younger Mr. Jacobi, now detained pending trial, to be "cordial and involved." He said the young bank clerk may have used such activities to combine his occupation and his underground political activity.
The president of Saxony's State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Reinhard Boos, called the Saxon police's major raid against right-wing extremists in Saxony's Switzerland a "preventive signal in the region." He said he was especially disturbed by the fact that the accused come from a rather middle-class milieu. He noted that one of the suspects works for a workers welfare organization and also performed with the right-wing extremist skinhead band 14 Auxiliary Saints.
LKA spokesman Hofner denied the frequently expressed suspicion that the suspects also include the children of police and border police. He said this could be true in individual cases. But the suspicion is underlined by the fact that very few officers from the region took part in last weekend's measure or in the preceding investigations by the special commission "Elbe River Sandstone."
But Mr. Hofner remarked that extreme secrecy was customary in such measures. The raid against the Saxon Switzerland Skinheads is part of police and the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution's efforts to counter right-wing radicalism and extremism in Saxony. Organizations similar to the SSS are also found elsewhere in Saxony, for example the White Terror Skins in Leipzig. But Mr. Boos underscored that the other organizations did not have anywhere near the manpower or organizational strength of the SSS.
Right-wing extremist skinheads and other militant right-wing extremist groups oppose foreigners, leftist-oriented persons, and alleged or actual drug addicts and dealers. The 1999 annual report of Saxony's Office for the Protection of the Constitution says about 1,100 people belong to groups willing to use violence.
Authorities' information shows that members of the SSS and its "Construction Organization" assisted the right-wing National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) in its state election campaign, for example as ushers or at the election campaign tables of an NPD city councilman in Pirna. Mr. Boos says ties between the NPD and the militant skinheads are close. He said the NPD, whose strongest German state organization is in Saxony, had achieved no election success with its temporary repudiation of activities on the streets and had lost about one-third of the 1,400 members it once had. Mr. Boos said the NPD had then ended its attempt to seem democratic and civilized and had resumed all its efforts in the "battle for the streets," as evident in numerous appearances in Saxony and elsewhere.
The president of the BfV said he hopes police measures like last Saturday's will have a deterrent effect. But the high rate of crimes motivated by right-wing extremism remains unchanged in Germany's five eastern states, which rank one through five among the 16 German states for such crimes of violence per 100,000 inhabitants, so there is reason enough for the energetic "clear grappling with extremism and its positions" that Mr. Boos also demands.
Officers from Saxony's Office for the Protection of the Constitution admit that support for this work is good in some areas and poor in others. The mayor of Schöna-Reinhardtsdorf, at any rate, thinks it is more important to report on the beauty of the local landscape. He said 45,000 visitors had stayed overnight in the town last year. He also said that he is not worried about his region's image. But that could change.
Jun. 29