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)
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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.



Russia Warns US Against 'Military Intervention' in Iran-Israel War

FILE PHOTO: Iranian flags fly as fire and smoke from an Israeli attack on Sharan Oil depot rise, following Israeli strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iranian flags fly as fire and smoke from an Israeli attack on Sharan Oil depot rise, following Israeli strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo
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Russia Warns US Against 'Military Intervention' in Iran-Israel War

FILE PHOTO: Iranian flags fly as fire and smoke from an Israeli attack on Sharan Oil depot rise, following Israeli strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iranian flags fly as fire and smoke from an Israeli attack on Sharan Oil depot rise, following Israeli strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo

Russia's foreign ministry on Thursday warned the United States not to take military action against Iran, amid speculation over whether Washington will enter the war alongside Israel.

"We would like to particularly warn Washington against military intervention in the situation, which would be an extremely dangerous step with truly unpredictable negative consequences," the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Iran has not asked its ally Russia for military help amid its escalating air war with Israel.

"Our Iranian friends have not asked us about this," Putin said in response to a question from an AFP reporter at a televized press conference in Saint Petersburg.