Overview

• Early on June 19, a powerful explosion destroyed a restaurant on Deutz-Kalker Straße, causing significant damage but injuring no one.
• Police are scrutinizing surveillance footage to establish links between the blast and the protracted conflict among drug gangs in Cologne.
• The owner's 23-year-old son, held in custody, is suspected of leading a gang that orchestrated large-scale drug trafficking across Germany.
• Investigators are still determining whether the two men who fled the scene are directly involved in the detonation or witnessed the attack.
• The restaurant blast is the latest in a series of violent incidents—including prior explosions, shootings and kidnappings—sparked by the theft of 350 kilograms of marijuana.