Day X · The New York Times

Day X, Part 1: Shadow Army?

May 27, 2021·33 min·2 clips

Investigators found stolen ammunition, Mein Kampf, and names of liberal politicians in Franco A.’s raids.

A maintenance worker at Vienna airport opens a hidden panel and finds a loaded black pistol. He turns the weapon over to police. Officers set a trap. Roughly two weeks later, a man comes back for the gun. Police arrest him. He says he is a police officer and a member of the German military. After hours of questioning, they release him. Then a fingerprint check shifts the case. The prints match a Syrian refugee record instead of a military file. That mismatch pushes the investigation through three countries and across several intelligence agencies. Investigators conclude that, in 2015, he entered Germany disguised as a refugee and kept that double life for more than a year. The question is why. He is arrested again. Raids uncover stolen ammunition, a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf, and more signs that the case reaches beyond one man. Investigators then raid several members of the northern branch, a group that called itself Nordkreuz, or Northern Cross. The reporter heads north to see what the group was doing. She speaks with a reservist, a decorator, a shooting instructor, a lawyer, and the owner of a military accessory shop. Some speak only on background, one tells her to leave his property, and most describe regular meetings at shooting ranges or in private homes where politics, immigration, distrust of government and the mainstream media, and fear of an approaching crisis shape the talk. Most say they only want to protect themselves and their families, but one source points to a different story that matches the allegations at the center of the terrorism investigation, which by the end leaves Franco A as the only person in all branches facing terrorism charges and, as far as officials can remember, the first active-duty soldier in Germany to stand trial for plotting terrorism since World War Two.

As heard by us

A hidden gun leads into a careful, widening investigation into disguise and a cross-border deception.

This episode starts with a loaded pistol hidden behind a bathroom wall at Vienna airport, then builds into a wider story about disguise, institutional blind spots, and a cross-border network.

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Why you'd press play

A hidden pistol pulls you into a cross-border case that starts at Vienna airport and widens into a German military officer's double life.

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