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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)
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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.

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China Dismisses Zelenskiy’s Claim It Is Supplying Weapons to Russia

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian speaks during a press conference in Beijing, China, 14 April 2025. (EPA)
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian speaks during a press conference in Beijing, China, 14 April 2025. (EPA)
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China Dismisses Zelenskiy’s Claim It Is Supplying Weapons to Russia

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian speaks during a press conference in Beijing, China, 14 April 2025. (EPA)
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian speaks during a press conference in Beijing, China, 14 April 2025. (EPA)

China's foreign ministry dismissed as "groundless" on Friday an accusation by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the country had been supplying weapons to Russia.

Despite maintaining close economic ties with Russia during Moscow's three-year war in Ukraine, China has sought to project an image of neutrality and denies any involvement in the war.

Friday's disclaimer followed Zelenskiy's remarks at a press conference the previous day that China was supplying weapons and gunpowder to Russia, while also accusing it of producing weapons on Russian territory.

China has never made lethal weapons available to any party to the Ukraine crisis, ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular news conference.

"China's position on the Ukrainian issue has always been clear," Lin said. "It has been actively committed to promoting a ceasefire and ending the conflict, as well as encouraging peace talks."

China opposes groundless accusations and political manipulation, he said, adding that Ukraine had said publicly that most of the components in weapons imported by Russia came from the United States and other Western nations.