A former German military bunker that later became a center of criminal activity is up for sale. From the "bunker of evil" thousands of drug deals, thefts and financial manipulations were carried out. What is known.
The complex, located by the Moselle River, covers an area of 13 hectares. It consists of two above-ground buildings and a five-level bunker. It is equipped with generators for emergency power supply, for water purification, with air conditioning installations and a pumping station. The lowest underground floor was used to store drinking water, provisions and diesel fuel.
From Bundeswehr bunker to cybercrime hub
The building originally housed the geoinformation department of the German Bundeswehr. He provided data to the military, which was also used by various authorized services abroad. In 2012, however, the Bundeswehr office was closed, and soon after the building was purchased for 450,000 euros by a private individual.
Subsequently, it is revealed that the buyer is a member of a cyber crime gang. For several years, the criminal group, which called itself “Cyberbunker”, operated from this location hundreds of servers through which almost 250,000 crimes were committed, including on the darknet: drug deals, theft and resale of personal data, prohibited financial transactions and manipulations, hacker attacks, etc. The criminal activity was discovered and stopped in the fall of 2019.
Two years later, in one of Germany's most significant cybercrime trials, eight people (four Dutch citizens, three German citizens and one Bulgarian citizen) were convicted of membership in a criminal organization. Their sentences ranged from one year probation to six years in prison. The name “bunker of evil”, as it was then called in the German press, also dates from that time. The bunker was confiscated by the prosecutor's office and subsequently handed over to the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Who will buy the bunker
The bunker has now been put up for sale again, for an undisclosed amount. Local residents hope that this time the sale will be more successful and bring legal income to the town of about 6,000 inhabitants, and perhaps new jobs.
So far, there are only a few proposals from interested parties to use the bunker as a food storage or wine aging facility, as well as to turn it into a hotel. Apparently the price will be decisive. Whoever offers the best will be able to write the next page in the history of the former “bunker for evil”.