The latest word on Anis Amri is that he could have been stopped before his attack, if the Berlin authorities had done their jobs properly. The late jihad fighter, who mowed down a crowd of people in a Christmas market last December, was already “known to police”, and his earlier offenses were serious enough that he should have been arrested.

Many thanks to Egri Nök for translating this report from FOCUS.de:

Anis Amri Case

Berlin State Office of Criminal Investigations staff charged with obstruction of justice

May 17, 2017

Anis Amri, the attacker of the Christmas Market in Berlin, could conceivably have been arrested prior to his attack, according to new findings. A document emerged that accused him of commercial, organized dealing in narcotics as early as November, Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) said on Wednesday.

“An arrest would have been possible” on these grounds. Now it is being investigated whether the document might have been held back intentionally for Amri’s sake. Disciplinary action has already been initiated.

Amri was a known “endangerer”

The Tunisian Amri plowed into the Christmas Market at the Memorial Church in Berlin on December 19 with a truck he had stolen earlier. He killed 12 people, and a further 67 were injured in what is the gravest Islamist terror attack to date in Germany. Several days later, Amri was shot by police during his flight though Italy.

The asylum seeker resided mainly in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin, and using several identities. After the attack it became clear that Amri had long been known to the security authorities as a so-called Islamist “endangerer”, and had even been under surveillance at times. But he had not been arrested. It has also surfaced that he was at times active in the Berlin drug scene.