German police searched seven states for controversial climate activists suspected of establishing or aiding a criminal organisation.
Seven suspects aged 22 to 38 have been identified. No arrests have been made.
The Letzte Generation has delayed German city traffic for months by hurling mashed potatoes at art.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has described their campaign as “completely insane.”
On Wednesday, approximately 170 police raided apartments and other structures in Berlin, Bavaria, Dresden, Hamburg. And other locations, shutting down the group’s website and freezing two accounts.
The seven suspects are accused of raising at least €1.4 million (£1.2 million) to fund “further criminal acts”.
Police and prosecutors stated that the investigations were conducted to determine the membership structure of Last Generation.
Two of the activists under investigation are suspected of attempting to sabotage an oil conduit crossing the Alps from Trieste, Italy, to Ingolstadt, Germany, a year ago.
Last Generation criticized the inspections using the chancellor’s “completely insane” remark as the hashtag VolligBekloppt, asking when the government would instead search “lobby structures and confiscate government fossil funds.”
Another climate action group, Ende Gelande, complained that the raids targeted those attempting to “raise the alarm about the climate crisis, as opposed to those responsible.”
Last Generation is campaigning for a 100km/h (62mph) speed limit on highways. And last week they blocked 12 streets in Berlin by gluing themselves to the road or to passing vehicles. These street sit-ins, however, have prompted some drivers to lash out at protestors.
The organisation led Lützerath protests against an open coal mine development in January. Where activist Greta Thunberg was briefly detained.
Two activists hurled mashed potato at a Claude Monet painting at a museum in Potsdam, near Berlin, in October and then glued themselves to a wall, mirroring similar protests by the climate action group Just Stop Oil in the United Kingdom.
Last Generation is not just a German band. Two activists glued themselves to the Austrian parliament on Wednesday, defying a ban on protests.
In Italy, three activists were scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday for gluing themselves to a Roman-era sculpture in the Vatican Museum last August. As a statement against fossil fuels, Ultima Generazione activists had also colored the Trevi fountain in Rome black.
