A camera was found in a minibus parked near the venue of an event organized by a left-wing political organization. It was installed in the back of the vehicle, on a shelf, in a plastic crate, one side of which had been replaced by tinted glass. The minibus was disguised as a craftsman's vehicle, with work equipment clearly visible, tools and empty coffee cups on the passenger seat.
Two cameras were found in a car parked on a street. They were installed on the rear parcel shelf, in a basket and a bag respectively. A set of cables, hidden under towels, led to the trunk of the vehicle. The camera lenses were aimed at a building entrance and a sidewalk.
A camera was found in a residential building close to a social center, in a small locked room on the 12th floor, overlooking the center's main entrance through a window. The camera was mounted on a tripod and powered by a socket in another locked room, through a cable laid outside across the roof. The residential building was located about 260 meters from the social center.
Several cameras were found in the attic of a public school located in front of a recently evicted squat, overlooking the squat through the skylights.
An AirTag — a tracking device marketed by Apple — was found on a scooter. It was hidden inside the scooter seat cushion, in which it was inserted through a slit apparently made with some sort of blade. It had an approximate diameter of 3 centimeters and a height of less than 1 centimeter.
Three surveillance cameras were found in a building, pointing towards the entrance of a wagenplatz (a leftist political community where people live in trailers). They were located in a locked room, on the sixth floor of a building close to the wagenplatz — the building in question was vacant, except for the first floor which was occupied by a leftist cultural project. One of the cameras was a “Sony ISO 409600 Extreme Sensitivety 4K” with a high-grade “Sony SEL 600mm F4 GM OSS E-mount” telephoto lens. The two other cameras were IP cameras of model “Panasonic WV-S6131”.
All three cameras were connected to a “G-ST 500+/8R Gscope055” video management device marketed by german company Geutebrück, which was equipped with a Telekom SIM card and a 2 TB SSD. The SSD contained video files dated from November and December 2022 in the GBF (Geutebrück Backup File) format, which can only be opened with the company's proprietary software. There were three files per day, each of which could be assigned to a camera. The file sizes indicated long-term and continuous video surveillance.
Another drive located in the room (of model “Samsung Portable SSD T5”) contained additional GBF video files dated from September and October 2022, as well as two images taken by the IP cameras dated from August 2022 and showing the entrance of the wagenplatz, people and vehicles.
The whole installation was powered from a wall socket using an “Antrax SwitchBox-GSM” device which contained another Telekom SIM card, allowing the installation to be powered on and off through the mobile phone network. The IP cameras were powered by the video management device through Ethernet (using a “Delock Gigabit PoE+ Splitter” device).
A camera and a microphone were found on a bike in Bavaria, Germany. They were hidden under the bike seat, inside a container resembling a tool kit. The device consisted of a main unit (~ 12 x 12 x 0.5 cm) connected to a camera (max 1 x 1 x 1 cm), a microphone, a battery (25 x 5 x 4 cm, Li-ion, 3.7 V, 60 Wh, 16.0 Ah), a modem (EM7565 Sierra Wireless), a SIM card (Telekom), a GSM antenna and a 4G antenna (Antenova SR4L002). The camera pointed outwards through a very small hole, directed at the entrance of the home under surveillance — it was impossible to identify it with the naked eye. A few minutes after the surveillance device was spotted and removed, the suspected spies came to retrieve their bike.
Two GPS trackers were found under a vehicle (the second one was found a few days after the first one was found and removed). They were attached with strong magnets in a hollow space between the plastic covering of the bumper and the body, precisely behind the left rear wheel. Each tracker consisted of two metal cases connected by a cable. The first one contained a battery pack, and the second one the tracker itself, including a smaller battery, two antennas, and a SIM card.
The pictures of the device show that a tracker of model NavKos T, marketed by the german company DESAG Telematic, was part of the device. This suggests that the device was supplied by the german company DESAG Telematic.
A GPS tracker and an audio recording device were found in a car. They were located behind a panel of the front ceiling light. They were connected by a power cable and drew their power from the supply line to the rear ceiling light. The GPS tracker contained, among other things, a GPS receiver “u-blox MAX-M8”, a card slot with a 16 GB microSD card, a cellular chip “u-blox LISA-U230” along with a Telekom SIM card, as well as a removable three-pin antenna module. The audio recording device contained a voltage converter, a 3.7 V, 550 mAh lithium-ion battery, and a small circuit board which included a 32 GB microSD card and the “NN01-104” antenna from the company Ignion (formerly “Fractus”). The audio recording device tapped into the hands-free system's existing microphone, which was located behind a cover above the rearview mirror.
A GPS tracker and a microphone were found in a car. The two devices were installed separately, each in one of the front seat headrests. The headrests were opened and glued back together after the bugs were installed. Both devices were equipped with two batteries each. The first device, which was apparently the control unit, was equipped with a GSM module to send GPS data and recorded audio files to the cops via the SIM card. On the control unit itself, there was a GPS/GSM antenna, the connection to the batteries and a microphone. Inside the device, a SIM card from “Deutsche Telekom” was found. The second device seemed to be the actual audio monitoring device. It also had a battery connection, a smaller antenna and two microphones, which had been glued into the holes for the seat support, with anti-vibration padding. This device was equipped with an SD card, but there were no more audio files stored in it. Apparently, the SD card was used as a storage medium for the operating system data and for temporary storage of the recorded data. According to what was known at the time of discovery, the GPS tracker was installed in August 2019 and the listening device intended for “internal surveillance of a vehicle” during or after September 2019. These devices were obviously installed by the federal criminal police (BKA) in order to retrieve information on the persons accused in the present “criminal association” proceedings.
A video surveillance device was found in the Plagwitz district of Leipzig. It was located on the second floor of a vacant house. It contained cameras mounted on tripods, which filmed the public space through windows.
A video surveillance device was found in the Connewitz district of Leipzig. It was located on the second floor of a vacant house. It contained a swiveling camera which was connected to a hard disk recorder and could be controlled via an LTE mobile phone connection, and a battery to power the device. Through a window, the camera had a view of the sidewalk, several building entrances and several apartment windows. The device could not be seen from the outside as luminous diodes had been specially masked off.
A GPS tracker was found under the car of an anti-militarist activist. It was attached with magnets under the right rear bumper. It was the same model as the device found in Leipzig in may 2013, “GPRSpack”. It contained batteries, a GPS receiver and a GSM module to send the collected data.
The GPRSpack device was developped as a collaboration between the BLKA (Bavarian Landeskriminalamt, State Criminal Police Office of Bavaria) and the German company EBS Electronic. In 2017, EBS Electronic, together with another company, became the German company EBS-SYSTART.
- GPRSpack.pdf: usage guide of the GPRSpack device (in German).
A GPS tracker was found under a car. It was attached with magnets inside the rear bumper of the vehicle. According to the article that reported the discovery, the device model was “GPRSpack”. It contained batteries, a GPS receiver and a GSM module to send the collected data.
The “GPRSpack” device was developed as a collaboration between the BLKA (Bavarian Landeskriminalamt, State Criminal Police Office of Bavaria) and the German company EBS Electronic. In 2017, EBS Electronic, together with another company, became the German company EBS-SYSTART.
- GPRSpack.pdf: usage guide of the GPRSpack device (in german).
A tracking device was found under the car of a member of an antifascist group. It was hidden in the wheel well of the car. It was planted by cops from the Staatsschutz (“State security”). The owner of the car caught the cops while they were tampering with her car in the garage of her workplace.
A GPS tracker was found in a car. It was attached with strong magnets in the front wheel well on the passenger's side. It contained a set of high-power batteries, a GPS receiving antenna, a module for data processing and a mobile radio transmitting module with a transmitting antenna. The whole thing was wrapped with black tape. The device was planted by the BKA (Bundeskriminalamt, Federal Criminal Police Office).
A GPS tracker was found under the car of an anti-fascist activist. The device was attached with magnets under the rear bumper. It was equipped with a battery. When it was discovered, it was flashing a green light at short intervals.
A tracking device was found under the car of a person under investigation for burglaries. It was attached with two magnets. It was a small box with an antenna.