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CRIME

Cocaine-soaked tablecloths found by Munich airport customs

Three tablecloths that had been soaked and dried in a liquid-cocaine solution have been discovered in the Munich Airport, customs officials reported on Thursday.

Cocaine-soaked tablecloths found by Munich airport customs
Photo: German Customs Office

According to airport customs workers, air cargo from South America attracted attention on Wednesday because it contained three simple tablecloths that weighed an unusual five kilogrammes.

The tablecloths were subsequently subjected to a rapid drug test in accordance with Munich airport’s regulations on Thursday and tested positive for cocaine.

Exactly how much cocaine the tablecloths contain has yet to be determined, a spokesperson for Munich airport customs Thursday.

He called the discovery “rather unusual.”

The tablecloths were most likely saturated with liquefied cocaine powder and then air dried, he said. In order to recover the narcotic, “chemical treatments” must be used, the airport said.

On May 26, customs workers at the same airport found suspiciously heavy hammocks from South America that turned out to contain a substantial amount of cocaine.

“There is no connection between the two cases,” Munich customs spokesperson Thomas Meister told The Local on Thursday. “This is the first time we’ve had such a case and it is very uncommon for us.”

Law enforcement officers have begun an investigation of the intended freight package recipients, who do not live within Germany, Meister said.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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