Busy Day: Frankfurt Airport Police Arrest 20 People In 13 Hours

The police force at Frankfurt Airport is off to a busy start this month. The agency announced that it made twenty arrests on various outstanding warrants, and criminals tried to depart the busy hub. During a period of just thirteen hours yesterday, officers executed more than twenty arrest warrants.

The crimes ranged from driving incidents to forgery, smuggling, and blackmail. Throughout 2022, police found more than 240,000 prohibited items during aviation security checks, executed 1,700 arrest warrants, and found more than 30,000 crimes (including around 1,600 document crimes.

Due to the start of the Easter school vacations in Hesse and other German states, Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is expecting high passenger numbers over the next few days. Over 3.4 million passengers traveled via Frankfurt in Febuary, with even more expected this month.

A litany of offenses.

The Federal Police Directorate of Frankfurt am Main Airport provided a sample of just some of the apprehensions it made yesterday in an official statement seen by Simple Flying. Offenders can replace many prison sentences in the country of fewer than six months with fines. However, not everyone can afford the privilege.

Federal police officers arrested a 53-year-old German woman on her arrival from São Paulo Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) in Brazil. She was fined €1,530 ($1,666) for forging documents in July 2020. The woman could not pay the outstanding amount upon her arrest and was admitted to the Preungesheim prison to serve the substitute prison sentence of 51 days.

A Croatian man of the same age paid €6,831.50 ($7,443) in fines and procedural costs after he was convicted of driving without a driver’s license in 2020 and 2021 and is now wanted with two arrest warrants. He was able to avert this by paying the outstanding amount. The alternative being a four-month substitute prison sentence.

Photo: Fraport AG

Judicial authorities were able to locate a 25-year-old Albanian on his arrival from Thessaloniki Airport (SKG), entering the country with three arrest warrants. There were two enforcement arrest warrants relating to violations of the Narcotics Act, and officials also wanted him with a pre-trial detention order for another suspected drug offense. The Federal Police took the man before a detention judge today, and he remains in the care of the judicial authorities.

Also in custody is a 49-year-old German, who federal police officers arrested on his way to Izmir, Turkey. Police have been searching for the man since March 13th, when government officials served him an arrest warrant on suspicion of predatory blackmail and trespassing. He allegedly threatened a real estate broker from Wetterau to force the surrender of a payment made in the amount of around €39,000 ($42,485) in July 2022.

Photo: Federal Police Directorate Frankfurt am Main Airport

The police force recently increased its numbers before the busy summer season. On the 28th of last month, 138 police officers of the Federal Police Directorate Frankfurt am Main Airport took their oath of service to the Basic Law in the presence of their superiors. The trainees had served at the largest commercial airport in Germany since the beginning of March.