Overview
- Cologne and Frankfurt investigators coordinated the operation with support from Düsseldorf police after matching suspects from theft-investigation photos.
- Plainclothes officers intercepted the suspects in Düsseldorf following surveillance of a rental vehicle located in Mülheim an der Ruhr.
- Roughly €2,000 in cash and apartment keys were found in the car, leading to a court-ordered search that seized about €33,000, $9,000, over £12,000, and roughly ¥1,100 in suspected proceeds along with allegedly stolen identity documents.
- Police link the group to early-October thefts in Cologne hotels, including a backpack containing a watch valued at over €100,000 and a bag taken from a 61-year-old guest, with hotel CCTV said to corroborate both incidents.
- The suspects were handed to Frankfurt authorities, and police say inquiries into additional crimes and potential accomplices remain active, with the trio reported to be from Peru and Nicaragua.