عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

4 Detained after Germany’s Largest Ever Heroin Seizure Traced Back to Iran

German police seen in Potsdam's central train station, on June 26, 2020. (Getty Images)
German police seen in Potsdam's central train station, on June 26, 2020. (Getty Images)
TT
TT

4 Detained after Germany’s Largest Ever Heroin Seizure Traced Back to Iran

German police seen in Potsdam's central train station, on June 26, 2020. (Getty Images)
German police seen in Potsdam's central train station, on June 26, 2020. (Getty Images)

Four people were detained after police made their largest ever seizure of heroin in Germany, prosecutors said on Friday, with police confiscating some 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds) as part of an operation against a gang smuggling narcotics from Iran.

The drugs were seized in the port city of Hamburg at the end of August. The detentions were made overnight on Thursday, when police searched 10 premises in the eastern cities of Dresden and Chemnitz, in Hamburg and in the Netherlands.

They seized documents, laptops, storage devices, smartphones and vehicles.

The detained were an unnamed 40-year-old Turkish-Serbian suspected ringleader, a 35-year-old Iranian in the Netherlands, a 54-year-old German suspected of using his firm's logistics fleet to transport drugs, and a 53-year-old Turkish go-between.

One was detained in Germany, one in Spain, and two others in the Netherlands. Prosecutors are seeking the extraditions of the three who were arrested abroad, while a court in Dresden is due to decide on Friday whether the person detained in Germany should be placed under arrest.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

South Korea's President Attends Court Hearing on Extending Detention

A blue van believed to be transporting impeached South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves the Seoul Western District Court after a hearing in Seoul on January 18, 2025, as the court weighs whether to extend the detention of Yoon, after investigators arrested him over a failed martial law bid. (Photo by JUNG Yeon-je / AFP)
A blue van believed to be transporting impeached South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves the Seoul Western District Court after a hearing in Seoul on January 18, 2025, as the court weighs whether to extend the detention of Yoon, after investigators arrested him over a failed martial law bid. (Photo by JUNG Yeon-je / AFP)
TT
TT

South Korea's President Attends Court Hearing on Extending Detention

A blue van believed to be transporting impeached South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves the Seoul Western District Court after a hearing in Seoul on January 18, 2025, as the court weighs whether to extend the detention of Yoon, after investigators arrested him over a failed martial law bid. (Photo by JUNG Yeon-je / AFP)
A blue van believed to be transporting impeached South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves the Seoul Western District Court after a hearing in Seoul on January 18, 2025, as the court weighs whether to extend the detention of Yoon, after investigators arrested him over a failed martial law bid. (Photo by JUNG Yeon-je / AFP)

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attended a court hearing on Saturday to fight a request by investigators to extend his detention on accusations of insurrection.
Yoon on Wednesday became the country's first sitting president to be arrested, in a criminal probe related to his short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.
Investigators requested a detention warrant on Friday to extend their custody of Yoon for up to 20 days. He has been refusing to talk to investigators and has been held in Seoul Detention Center since his arrest.
After the hearing, Yoon returned to Seoul Detention Center to await the court's decision, which is expected on Saturday or Sunday, Reuters reported.
The hearing at Seoul Western District Court lasted nearly five hours. Yoon spoke for about 40 minutes during the hearing, Yonhap said, citing Yoon's lawyer.
"(Yoon) sincerely explained and answered questions on factual relationships, evidence and legal principles... We will quietly wait for the court to decide," said Yoon's lawyer, Yoon Kab-keun, after the hearing.
Yoon had decided to attend the hearing "to restore his honor by directly explaining the legitimacy of emergency martial law and that insurrection is not established", his lawyer said earlier on Saturday.
TV channels showed a convoy of around a dozen cars and police motorbikes escorting Yoon from the detention center to the court, as well as back to the detention center.
Since police broke up a crowd of Yoon's supporters blocking the court gate in the morning, thousands of supporters surrounded the court after the hearing began at around 2 p.m. (0500 GMT) behind a police barricade chanting "release the president".
"There are so many supporters of President Yoon Suk Yeol around the court, who still believe in the rule of law and are defending the president," said Lee Se-ban, a 30-year-old man.
Multiple people were arrested by police for trying to break into the court grounds, including a young man who tried to escape, according to a Reuters witness.
Insurrection, the crime alleged against Yoon by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, is one of the few that an incumbent South Korean president does not have immunity from.