Iran reportedly plotted attacks on Jews in Germany using spy with Danish citizenship

Iranian intelligence used an Afghani man with Danish citizenship to compile information on Jews in Germany. The Afghani, known only as Ali S., was arrested in Denmark, in the city of Aarhus, German prosecutors announced in a statement on Tuesday. 

Earlier this year, an Iranian intelligence service tasked Ali S. with gathering information on “Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals” in Berlin, prosecutors said. 

Ali was spying on three different properties last month, “presumably in preparation for further intelligence activities in Germany, possibly including terrorist attacks on Jewish targets,” according to prosecutors.

Ali S. will be brought before a judge in Germany to determine whether he is to be kept in custody pending formal charges after extradition from Denmark. He is accused of working for an intelligence service of a foreign power. 

This isn't the first time that Iran has been found to be spying on Israeli, Jewish and Iranian dissident targets in Germany. In 2022, the German government “acknowledged an increase in spying by Iranian intelligence agents on its soil”, according to Israel Hayom. The German government at the time had identified 160 individuals with links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Iran’s Islamic regime has been linked to targeting civilians and dissidents abroad as part of its broader conflict with Israel. A report published in September by the European Investigative Collaborations organization, in partnership with journalists from nine outlets, found that Iran has recruited gang members and drug traffickers in Europe to carry out attacks on Jews, Israelis, and Iranian dissidents living abroad.

The criminal groups hired by Iran target both Israeli embassies and private Jewish individuals:

In Sweden, two violent criminal gangs, “Foxtrot,” headed by Iranian-born criminal Rawa Majid, and its rival “Rumba,” headed by Ismail Abdo, have reportedly been recruited by Iran, which pays them to commit terror against Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe. The two gangs have been connected with repeated shooting attacks against the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm. Foxtrot, according to Swedish public broadcaster SVT, was also behind an attack using hand grenades close to the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen on Oct. 2, 2024. Three men were arrested in connection with the attack.

An Iranian-recruited terror cell arrested in France was plotting the murder of four Israeli citizens working in France, as well as three senior members of the Jewish community in Germany, according to the Shomrim report. 

The attacks are sponsored by Iran and its terror proxy Hezbollah and partially funded through narcotics trafficking and connections with international drug gangs, according to a former Mossad agent. 

“Our surveillance of the drug-smuggling trade as Hezbollah’s key economic lifeline reveals that the group is connected to all the [criminal] organizations, whether it’s in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden or Sri Lanka. There, they are on the same field as the big players,” the former Mossad agent stated.

Iran has also repeatedly recruited spies within Israel. Most recently, last month, two Jewish Israelis suspected of conducting espionage for the Iranian government were arrested.