Almost ten years after the theft of medical technology worth 400,000 euros from the St. Carolus Hospital in Görlitz, two of the expensive endoscopes stolen at the time have reappeared. The devices, worth tens of thousands of euros, were returned to the hospital in November, the Görlitz police department announced on Wednesday. They had been seized during searches as part of an international investigation involving the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
This was preceded by an investigation involving the Görlitz criminal investigation department, Europol, the Colombian police and the US authorities. According to the police, a group of Colombian criminals stole the expensive medical technology during a night-time break-in at the Görlitz hospital in July 2016. The thieves apparently struck at clinics throughout Europe at the time. The loot was shipped to South America shortly afterwards and then sold on the black market to clinics in Colombia, the USA and other countries.
