German police bodycam captures dramatic arrest of suspected power saboteur

Police in Cologne have released an arrest video showing Daniel V., suspected of power sabotage, being handcuffed and placed in a patrol car. Officers encountered him face down on the ground with their weapons drawn. The video also depicts a tent where Daniel V. is believed to have slept.

North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul informed the state parliament's internal affairs committee that investigators have identified additional potential crime scenes in North Rhine-Westphalia and other German states, as well as neighboring countries. Over 40 conductive material-firing devices near substations have been discovered, allegedly intended to cause power outages.

A seized vehicle contained a notebook with handwritten notes about over 150 potential targets, which investigators subsequently verified.

Daniel V., 48, was apprehended near the Weisweiler power station outside Aachen after a days-long search. Police say he identified seven sites where he allegedly had depots. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office is leading the investigation, considering whether Daniel V. targeted the constitutional order through sabotage and whether he acted alone or was acting on behalf of a foreign power. No evidence supports the latter theory yet.

Reul stressed that the investigation is proceeding rapidly. Recent days have seen multiple suspected sabotage acts targeting power infrastructure in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg, using improvised rockets to fire conductive material at high-voltage lines. No major power outages resulted from these incidents. An anonymous author claimed responsibility for several attacks in letters, but Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster urged caution against premature conclusions, describing the method of attack and the confession as unusual.