Blutadler (2012)

A bizarre series of murders is keeping the Hamburg police busy. The female victims have been brutally executed using an ancient Viking ritual called the blood eagle. The killer, known internally within the police as Ripper, announces his crimes shortly beforehand by email or text message, sent directly to Inspector Fabel. In the course of their investigation, Fabel’s team uncovers links to the Federal Criminal Police Office, since at least one of the victims was on the agency’s payroll. Connections to the Ukrainian mafia also come to light. Journalist Angelika Blüm has already been investigating a Ukrainian group of this kind and is willing to share her findings with Fabel. Unfortunately, he finds her dead in her apartment. She had managed to tell him over the phone that the Ukrainians were apparently involved in property deals. Even within its own ranks, the BKA leadership suspects there is a mole from this milieu. With the help of an informant suffering from severe addiction, Fabel is then able to expose two of his colleagues as spies. While researching the blood eagle, Fabel’s colleague Susanne repeatedly comes across the name Wassyl Witrenko, a Ukrainian colonel who systematically used the blood eagle during the Chechen war. The two agents exposed earlier had worked for Witrenko. It is not only the Hamburg police who are on his trail; the Ukrainian anti-terrorist police are after him too. Fabel’s teammate Anna is abducted by Harald Frantzen, who had until then only been a suspect, and taken to the Wilhelmsburg flak tower. But seconds before Frantzen carries out the blood eagle on her, in Witrenko’s presence and on his orders, Fabel and his colleague Herrmann rescue her. Frantzen is killed in the shootout, and their colleague Maria is critically injured while pursuing Witrenko, who manages to escape.