German Federal Criminal Police Office arrested five men on Tuesday for alleged membership in a criminal association violating the Foreign Trade and Payments Act, arranging 16,000 shipments worth 30 million euros to Russian defense companies, as stated by the agency in a press release reported this morning. The suspects face charges for facilitating exports in violation of sanctions, according to the Generalbundesanwaltschaft (GBA) announcement cited by journalist Florian Flade on X at approximately 10:00 AM UTC, within the reporting window from 8:45 AM to 10:45 AM UTC. A related podcast episode with Chris Carr from SecretsAndSpies discussed Russian procurement networks in Europe and sanction evasion involving Western technology in Russia's 'Harmony' military project. The arrests represent enforcement action against sanction circumvention networks, with the press release detailing the scale of shipments to defense firms, as confirmed via presseportal.de.
