Raid at JVA Rheinbach: Seven employees suspected of corruption, Limbach under pressure

At its core, the Bonn public prosecutor's office is investigating the suspicion that the employees smuggled drugs and mobile phones into the prison and collected payments for doing so. According to the ministry, the searches yielded 15 grams of cocaine, a small amount of amphetamine, an old pistol with cartridges and magazines, and various data storage devices. Mobile phones, laptops, written documents and server data also fell into the investigators' hands. The Bonn police have set up an investigation group named "Kiosk" to handle the case.

Corruption Allegations and Consequences for Staff

The accused are charged with having accepted bribes and, in return, granted privileges to inmates. According to the public prosecutor's office, shopping vouchers – including those for online mail-order retailers – are also said to have flowed to staff. The seven current employees have been banned from entering the JVA and suspended from duty. According to the public prosecutor's office, no arrest warrants were applied for, as there were no grounds for detention.

At the same time, several current and former prisoners are the focus of the investigations, accused of bribery – that is, offering or giving benefits. As the ministry explained, the drugs were found on former inmates, and the seized cocaine was also found on a former inmate. The public prosecutor's office did not want to specify the exact number of prisoners affected.

Minister only learned at 8:31 a.m.

The Rheinbach correctional facility itself had already filed a criminal complaint in 2024 and subsequently passed on the findings to the public prosecutor's office. As the Ministry of Justice conceded, the responsible department in the minister's office knew nothing of these complaints until very recently. As emerged from the session, the JVA director had already filed a complaint two years ago following indications of vouchers increasingly arriving by mail to inmates and a suspicion of corruption involving staff, and had repeatedly informed the authorities since then.

Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach told the Legal Affairs Committee that he only learned of the searches on Tuesday at 8:31 a.m. during a meeting – one hour after the raid had begun. "Not only was the raid new to him. He had also known nothing of the allegations and the investigations until then, Limbach explained," according to the ministry. A Limbach staffer told the committee that the prison director had only informed the responsible specialist department in the ministry shortly before the planned searches. "We will leave no stone unturned," Limbach announced.

Statewide Pocket Searches Ordered

As a consequence of the incidents, Limbach ordered pocket searches for employees in all prisons statewide. According to the information, the regulation is initially not limited in time and gives the facilities a framework that they can adapt on site to their conditions. The minister also announced a special audit of JVA Rheinbach. He referred structural problems in the prison system to an expert commission as well as to cooperation with the Ruhr Security Conference.

Criticism from the Opposition

In the Legal Affairs Committee, criticism of the minister's information policy grew. FDP expert Werner Pfeil demanded, "All correctional facilities must be reviewed for criminal or disciplinary structures." He spoke of a "systemic failure" in the North Rhine-Westphalian prison system and named, in addition to Rheinbach, the facilities in Euskirchen, Willich and possibly Bochum, "where corresponding, similarly situated problems exist." It remains unclear when the ministry was informed about the ongoing investigations.

The SPD also sharpened its tone. Hartmut Ganzke said: "Justice Minister Limbach must ask himself whether he still has his portfolio under control." He pointed out that there had been initial complaints years ago and that, at the latest since the corruption scandal at JVA Euskirchen, which became public in May, "all alarm bells should have been ringing. The Justice Minister is once again coming under pressure."

The Bonn public prosecutor's office sees no connection to the corruption complex at JVA Euskirchen based on the current state of the investigation. Limbach likewise emphasized that there was no connection between the two cases. At the same time, he announced that he would review the incidents in Rheinbach with a special audit and the statewide pocket search regulation. According to information from the session, the Legal Affairs Committee is to be kept informed of the further progress of the investigations.

Among the thousands of employees in the prison system, there are "only a few bad apples," Limbach said. The pocket search measure is also intended to protect honest employees. The minister pledged to fully investigate the events at JVA Rheinbach. How the information ultimately reached the minister – or why it reached him so late – remained open even after the special session.