A 28-year-old Russian citizen, believed to be a member of the hacker group Qilin, has been extradited from Japan to Germany, reports LETA citing DPA. The man was arrested back in May in Tokyo, where he had traveled for vacation. Last Friday, he was transported to Germany, reported Herbert Reul, the Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia. According to German authorities, since 2024, Qilin has been extorting money from nearly 4,000 companies worldwide. About 150 victims were located in Germany. The total amount demanded by the hackers approached $3 billion. However, the actual payments made by victims exceeded $140 million, or about €125 million. Reul described Qilin as one of the most active and audacious cybercriminal groups in the world. The identification of the alleged group member was achieved after a lengthy investigation. Benjamin Limbach, the Minister of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia, stated that German investigators infiltrated the hacker community and monitored its activities for several months. Experts analyzed a large amount of digital traces until they were able to link the online pseudonym used to a specific individual. After establishing the identity, the investigation led to the suspect. Ultimately, he was apprehended not in Russia or Germany, but during a trip to Japan. A notable aspect of this case is that there is no extradition treaty between Japan and Germany. Despite this, Japanese authorities agreed to hand over the suspect to the German side. Reul and Limbach thanked Japan for its cooperation and called the extradition an example of how international collaboration allows for the prosecution of members of cybercriminal groups even beyond the borders of the countries where the attacks occurred.
