The young man accused of speeding had also been involved in the race through Düsseldorf. The defendants, aged 22 and 23, had bragged about their speeding on social media.

Six months ago, a witness saw the trio join in a dangerous, illegal race across all three lanes of the 46 autobahn. With their high-performance cars, they raced at full throttle and in risky overtaking maneuvers through the Düsseldorf tunnel under the university campus. The speed limit there is 80 kilometers per hour.

Police secured footage from traffic surveillance cameras in the tunnel and verified the witness's statements. The young suspects from Solingen, Wesseling and Krefeld are now being investigated. As it turned out, they had also filmed the race in the tunnel.

During the raid on Tuesday, two of the three sports cars involved, an Audi R8 and a Mercedes AMG, as well as data carriers were confiscated. The driving licenses of the suspects were temporarily revoked. The third car, a BMW M3, had been sold in the meantime.

The expensive cars were either financed by the suspects themselves or by their parents. Investigations are also underway against two suspected supporters from Siegburg and Cologne. Data carriers were seized there during searches. Police assume that the men, who live there, were not involved in the race itself, but filmed the race.

The main defendants now face a fine or up to two years in prison for taking part in an illegal race. If they are proven to have endangered third parties, this would be a particularly serious case for which up to five years' imprisonment could be imposed.

(Orig. text: dpa/sfa, Translation: ck)