German investigators bust illegal data center in old NATO bunker

German authorities arrested seven suspects in multiple raids in the country's latest fight against cyber-crime, investigators announced on Friday.

The arrested men were suspected of having operated an illegal data center in a former NATO bunker, according to the criminal investigation office (LKA) of Rhineland-Palatinate and the public prosecutor's office of the city of Koblenz.

After five years of investigation, several hundred police officers were involved in the large-scale operation on Thursday evening, the LKA noted. Around 200 servers, written documents, numerous data carriers, mobile phones and a large amount of cash were seized.

"For the first time, German investigating authorities have succeeded in busting such a host," they said, adding that the sole purpose of the so-called "bullet proof host" was to store the websites of criminal offenders.

Through these websites, "internationally active criminals distributed prohibited goods such as drugs and false documents as well as stolen data, disseminated child pornography and carried out large-scale cyber-attacks," the LKA and the prosecutor's office said.

Back in 2016, the data center had been the source of a cyber-attack in which the devices of around one million customers of Germany's largest telecommunications provider Deutsche Telekom had been shut down.

"When it comes to cybercrime, we usually deal with highly complex digital structures for which there are no national borders. That is why we are focusing above all on international cooperation in the fight against cybercrime," said Johannes Kunz, president of the state criminal investigation office.