Overview
- German, Greek and Romanian authorities arrested a 37-year-old Romanian in Hamburg and a 54-year-old Greek in northern Greece under a European arrest warrant.
- Investigators allege the men, who worked at the Port of Hamburg in 2025, dumped more than 20 kilograms of grit or steel pellets into an engine, punctured freshwater lines, removed fuel caps and disabled electronic safety switches.
- The tampering was detected during pre-departure checks as the corvette Emden prepared for its first trip to Kiel, and Greek court papers describe separate work on the corvette Koeln in June 2025 that cut power and risked a fire.
- Homes in Germany, Greece and Romania were searched, and authorities seized multiple devices and records, including six phones, USB drives, a hard drive, a SIM card and evidence of 19 bank accounts.
- Prosecutors say the acts could have caused major damage and delayed departures, and they are investigating possible accomplices and motives; no public attribution to a foreign state has been made.