Police raid, Hitler's gun and a massive lawsuit: The mystery shaking Argentina

A Luger pistol, which allegedly belonged to Adolf Hitler and is valued at approximately $42 million, is at the center of a stormy legal affair in Argentina, as reported today by the American news outlet 'New York Post'. The pistol, dubbed the 'Holy Grail of firearms', disappeared in 2016 during a police raid on the home of Juan Pablo Ruppel, an electrical appliance repair technician living in a rural area in the Buenos Aires province.

Ruppel, 48 and a father of four, claims that the pistol was inherited from his German great-uncle, Hans Ruppel, who previously served as a bodyguard for Hitler. According to him, the uncle gave him the pistol as a birthday gift, but during the raid carried out by masked police officers, it was taken from his home and has not yet been returned to him.

At the time, Ruppel was suspected of stealing minor items such as plates, cups, and cutlery, but an indictment was never filed against him. Despite this, according to him, one of the police officers took the rare pistol from his home.

It is a .45 caliber Luger Parabellum model, number 5 — one of five prototypes produced in 1907 by Georg Luger. The pistol was considered a rare collector's item even before it was linked to Hitler, and was even mentioned in the 1987 film 'Wall Street', where it was called 'the rarest gun in the world'.

However, the connection to Hitler is what made it, according to experts who spoke with the 'New York Post', an item of exceptionally high value. British investigative journalist Laurence de Mello, who is leading an independent investigation on behalf of the Ruppel family in an attempt to locate the pistol, defined it as a 'ghost of the Third Reich' and the 'most expensive gun in the world'.

In the 1979 ownership license appearing in Argentina's national weapons registry, an address in Buenos Aires is listed where Josef Mengele, known as the 'Angel of Death', previously lived. Additionally, an Interpol notice describes the pistol as having the name 'Adolf Hitler' engraved on it. Ruppel said that his great-uncle Hans claimed the pistol belonged to Hitler and was brought to Argentina in 1948 with the assistance of the then-president of Argentina, Juan Domingo Perón.

'I have been saying this for 10 years: if they offered me $50 million or the gun — I would choose the gun every time,' Ruppel said. 'But since it still hasn't been found and I can't keep waiting, I want the state to pay.'

Ruppel is suing the Buenos Aires provincial Ministry of Security and demanding compensation for the pistol that was not returned after it disappeared while in police custody. A civil court ruled this month that the ministry is responsible for the damage and has awarded, at this stage, compensation of $15,000 plus interest, pending the completion of an independent valuation — while the lawsuit estimates its value at approximately $42 million.

The two police officers who led the raid are expected to face criminal trial this coming March for aggravated theft and breach of public duty.

According to de Mello, Hans Ruppel served in the SS Leibstandarte division, Hitler's bodyguard unit, during World War II, and fled to Argentina in 1945. However, she emphasizes that he was not involved in Mengele's war crimes and was not accused of Nazi atrocities.

After years of investigating Nazi escape routes to South America, de Mello said she is not surprised that such a rare gun was found in a private home in a rural area. However, according to her, what raises questions is the claim that police officers acted on specific information to locate the gun, and that they knew exactly what they were looking for.

The gun was handed over to the state, but has since disappeared. 'They took it into state custody, and the state simply cannot find it,' de Mello said. 'It smells like more than one corrupt police officer.'