Germany records over 165 suspected acts of sabotage since start of 2026
German police have registered more than 165 suspected sabotage cases and nearly 750 incidents involving suspicious drones over military sites and critical infrastructure since the start of 2026, according to a confidential Federal Criminal Police Office report.
German law enforcement authorities have recorded more than 165 suspected acts of sabotage and almost 750 incidents involving suspicious drones over military facilities and critical infrastructure since the beginning of 2026. The information comes from Süddeutsche Zeitung, citing a confidential report by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), compiled after the first months of operation of the Joint Center for Defense Against Hybrid Threats (GAZ-Hybrid), which opened in Berlin in mid-June. The list also includes espionage cases that did not involve drones.
Criminal cases and espionage incidents
Germany's federal and state prosecutors have already opened 24 criminal cases on espionage charges this year, half of them related to cyberattacks. Investigations continue into another 40 suspected cases of cyber-espionage. Overall, police registered 112 espionage-related offenses, including more than 60 involving unauthorized photography or filming of military sites or equipment, and 26 involving suspected agent activity aimed at preparing sabotage. Most such cases were recorded in Brandenburg (23), North Rhine-Westphalia (21), Schleswig-Holstein (21) and Lower Saxony (15).
Drone flights over strategic sites
Security agencies documented 747 cases of suspicious drone sightings, amounting to 1,068 total drone flights over critical infrastructure, military bases and defense industry plants. Drone operators are rarely apprehended, though in July authorities in Bavaria detained a Moldovan citizen who allegedly used a drone to spy on a facility belonging to defense company KNDS, reportedly acting on instructions from Russian intelligence services.
The report also describes an incident on August 9 near a gas processing plant in Grossenkneten, Lower Saxony, where a security guard, while trying to locate the operator of a spotted drone, encountered two masked men near the fence who struck him and fled without being identified.
Earlier incidents cited in the report include the April 2024 arrest in Bavaria of two dual Russian-German nationals who monitored US military bases, a July 2024 fire in a DHL parcel at Leipzig airport, a July 2026 fire on a rail line between Düsseldorf and Cologne that damaged signal cables, and the August discovery of a drone carrying explosives near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle airport.
