The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has successfully located undisclosed individuals suspected of being IS fighters in Germany by employing a new investigative technique. According to reports from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, NDR, and WDR, the state protectors are analyzing hundreds of lists taken from within the “Islamic State” (IS), including payroll and membership rosters. Based on this analysis, the authorities have initiated investigations into about 30 men who entered Germany in recent years, none of whom had previously been targets of German security services as Islamists. The BKA confirmed to the three media outlets that numerous proceedings are underway, though it only specified that six former IS members have already been convicted in Germany following the data analysis, with potentially hundreds more investigations to follow. The BKA has compiled approximately 400 of these documents. This reportedly marks the first time a Western investigative agency has systematically utilized such data assets to track down individuals associated with the IS. Specifically, the BKA compares names from a payroll list containing entries for almost 50,000 people with data from the Foreigners Central Register, which houses information on refugees, for example. According to investigations by “SZ”, NDR, and WDR, this method has so far helped identify about 75 suspected IS fighters who are believed to reside in Germany, though investigations have not yet been launched against all of them. Furthermore, the BKA is now automatically cross-referencing photographs of IS members with images from the Foreigners Central Register and police databases, yielding nearly 100 matches so far, with more expected to follow. It is understood that the investigators have not even reviewed half of the names from the payroll list. When approached by the media, the BKA declined to comment on the findings, stating that the evaluations are “complex and laborious” and an “ongoing process”.
IS Documents Lead German Police to Dozens of Unidentified Jihadists
