Espionage case shakes Leipzig Airport

The German security authorities have arrested a Chinese woman who is alleged to have spied for the Beijing regime. She is accused of spying on data about military flight movements and passing on sensitive data about flights, the transportation of military equipment, and information about passengers to a Chinese intermediary, Jian Guo. He, too, is now in custody.

The Central German Airport’s AG (Leipzig/Halle + Dresden), owned by the states of Saxony and neighboring Saxony-Anhalt, continues to suffer turbulence. It has been in the red for years and needs to enforce a stiff restructuring program to enable its financial U-turn. Yet, this is resisted by trade unions and employees who fear job losses.

Spying out military activities
To make things worse, the airport now faces an espionage case, further tainting its reputation. One of its employees, 38-year-old Chinese female, Yagi X, has been arrested and put in custody. She stood on the payroll of LEJ’s ground handling unit, PortGround, but was mainly working for the airport management, insiders confirmed to CargoForwarder Global. This included attending international congresses and internal meetings of LEJ Airport’s China Strategy Working Group. She therefore had insight into strategic management decisions and probably also into data on the transportation of military equipment. She is said to have been particularly interested in information about people who had business relationships with a large German defense company. Many of the manufacturer’s military goods, including heavy weapons and guns, were trucked to Leipzig to be loaded on board of Antonov Airlines’ AN-124-100 freighter aircraft for uplift. Two units, belonging to the Antonov Logistics GmbH, are permanently based at the Saxon Airport, to carry out airlifts for EU and NATO states. The LEJ stopovers of U.S. troops on their way to areas of operation, also raised Yagi X’s attention. “Presumably the Chinese secret service now has more detailed information about the activities at the airport than LEJ’s own management,” a person familiar with the local scene told CargoForwarder Global.

Did Guo run a spy ring?
The investigations by the enforcement authorities are still ongoing. The fact is that Yagi X did not act alone. She passed on the data collected by her from mid-August 2023 to mid-February 2024, to the Sino-German, Jian Guo. He was the personal assistant to Maximilian Krah, a hard-core right winger of the fascist AfD party and member of the EU parliament.
Jian Guo was arrested last April on suspicion of spying for China. He is currently in custody. The 43-year-old is alleged to have channeled confidential information from the EU Parliament, regarding the EU’s China policy, to the Chinese secret service. He is also alleged to have orchestrated a network via Krah’s parliamentary office, which was used to organize a trip to China by local politicians from Saxony state in Eastern Germany, among other things.

What role do AfD MPs play
The German investigating authorities also accuse him of spying on Chinese opposition members living in Germany, and forwarding the information collected to Beijing. His political boss, AfD member Maximilian Krah, has since dismissed Guo and stated that he did not know about his spying activities. As part of the investigation against Guo, investigators also searched Krah’s offices. He had traveled to China several times in the past and attracted attention due to his pro-Chinese statements.
Last May, an investigation revealed that Krah had allegedly given another suspected spy access to the EU Parliament. This individual, Janusz Niedźwiecki from Poland, is in pre-trial detention in Poland after the public prosecutor’s office accused him of spying for the Russian secret service. Niedźwiecki is said to be the link between the AfD and Russian oligarch and Putin supporter, Victor Medvedtchuk, who is subject to EU sanctions. Evidence shows that Krah enabled Niedźwiecki to lobby for Medvedtchuk in the German Bundestag (national parliament), and the EU Parliament. This was allegedly organized by another of Krah’s assistants, the Frenchman, Guillaume Pradoura. Krah employed him in his MEP’s office from 2019.

DHL hit by sabotage
On another note, DHL Express reports various attempts of sabotage against the company. Four explosive devices were contained in packages, originating from senders in the Baltic States. Three of them were detected in time and rendered harmless. Unfortunately, a fourth device detonated at the DHL logistics center in Leipzig, the integrator’s largest hub worldwide. This set fire to a freight container filled with other shipments, but local fire fighters managed to quickly extinguish the flames. The parcel containing the incendiary device was supposed to be transited in Leipzig and flown from there to its final destination. However, the connecting flight was delayed, so it exploded on the ground. Security circles assume that the incident is linked to increasing cases of suspected Russian sabotage. Moscow’s secret service has adopted a policy of systematically recruiting criminals to target Western states that sanctioned the Putin regime following its war on Ukraine, by carrying out sabotage actions. This practice makes it almost impossible for investigators to prove that the Russian state is responsible for such activities, even if the perpetrators are caught. This said, concealed operations of such proxy troops benefit the initiator while preserving his anonymity.