German police seize over a ton of cocaine, arrest 8 people. The case is linked to Martin P a Hamburg Hells Angels member. The ship came from Brazil.
So we will see what happens next.



https://www.mopo.de/hamburg/polizei...l-hinter-dem-mega-deal-stecken--31567632

English

They used the so-called "rip-off" method. In this method, legitimate shipments are exploited to smuggle contraband, without the knowledge of the shipper nor the consignee. Corrupt officials and port employees facilitate this form of trafficking.

Which organized crime groups are the strongest in Germany at the moment ? Also would it still be accurate to state that indigenous German organized crime ( as represented by f.ex the Ringvereine associations ) no longer exists in Germany ?

Depends on what you mean with "strongest" and on the region. The Ndrangheta is said to control the majority of the cocain trade in germany. Arab Clans are pretty strong in bigger cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen etc). They are concentrated in west germany and number a few thousand members, although not every member of a clan is a criminal. Same goes for turkish OC. Biker gangs are strong in terms of men power and are also present in east germany. interestingly there is a pretty big strong lithuanian OC in germany, which comprises 11% of all arrests of OC suspects in germany.

Native german OC like the Ringervereine are no longer active. They were very active in the 20s-30s until the Nazis wiped them out. Some went to prison or konzentrationslager as Berufsverbrecher, some went to the army and others fled. After the war they reorganized as Sparvereine or Kegelvereine. Ringervereine in the the beginning were just "official" associations of delinquents. They filled out forms and were registered just like mormal sport clubs. They had their club traditions, statuts and club meetings. After the war there was a trend in germany to go to pubs and save some money by puting some money in "piggy bank" each time you were going for a drink.The barkeeper would watch over the money and at the end of the year it was counted and everyone got their savings payed out. Ringvereine named themselvs "Sparvereine" (Spar=save; Verein= club) or Kegelvereine (Kegel=sport similiar to bowling) after the war and tried to carry on their activities, but had problems with police pressure and a generel lack of former members to carry on the tradition.

Ringvereine was a special pre-war phenomenon. Embedded in german culture. Look only in germany (maybe japan too) gangster establish offical societies. With own flag etc.
After the second World War culture and economic situation change dramatic. So bladerkeks said right they lost on ground. But of course you will found native OC in Germany.

You will also found a lot connection between underworld figures and this special culture. In most citys in germany gangsters in 70's, 80's, 90's had some family or other link.

If you want understand native OC. You should forget your mafia idea.

Native OC had two different faces. One is closely connected with Redlight and the other are White-Dollar ´scene. Sometimes at some places this to worlds are connected.

Redlight: It is easier to writer about person's or underworld Kings. Because this is a subculture. Closely connected with each other. Some more some less organized. In 90's a lot oldschool Kings get arrested or retiered (Klaus Speer (berlin), Ringo Klemm (hamburg), Attila (stuttgart), Beker Brothers, frankfurt, Jürgen "Aki" Jacoby (Frankfurt), Thust....
So younger guys get on the top. Another important point it had nothing to do with nationality. So you can be a german, jew, jugo or somethng else. Important only you live this life.

In 90's starts another developments more or less young guys wehre worked in Redlight founded a MC called Bones MC. In 1999 Bones MC merge with the HA. So you cannot compare with HA USA. Most German MC are closly connected with redlight.

Today you will also found a lot "german" groups. Hamburger jungs (Marek Bande) in Hamburg, Generell Hamburg are german and albanian the most powerful guys. East Berlin had tough german groups, Winfried S and his successor in Westberlin. complete southwest Munich, Stuttgart had some germans, frankfurt, reutlingen...

Sometimes they are mixed Turkish, Greece and German but they more german than traditional turkish groups.

East German are another story but there are highly organized. Lot corruption so they had in some city realy power and well connected with other Non-german groups.


"German OC groups are seldom mentioned in trans-national criminal activities, but their
significant profits and the fact that they are involved in types of crime that require a vast
network of international connections suggest that their importance on a continental level
is underestimated and their actual power not fully known" From

EUROPOL REPORT 2005

Many of the Travellers in the east of the Netherlands, have in fact German roots they are descendants of travelling horse traders, artists, musicans, peddlers etc..

Oh I didn't assume indigenous German criminal organizations to be like the mafia at all , I was just interested if they survived the Ringvereine era or not ...


Anyways thanks for the information .

Germany's backlog in its battle against organized crime
Organized crime is global and knows no borders. Germany acknowledged this relatively slowly and as a result is quite unprepared to deal with it compared with other countries, Anabel Hernández writes.

https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-backlog-in-its-battle-against-organized-crime/a-51648419

In 2018, 31.2% of those involved in organized crime were Germans, 66.1% were foreigners with clearly established citizenship. The citizenship of the remaining 2.7% could not be determined.

Top 3 foreign organizations.

Arab-Turkish Organized Crime
Russian-Eurasian Organized Crime
Italian Organized Crime

The German police will investigate criminals who buy Dutch cars on a large scale and thereby launder them. According to police magazine Blauw , the police are counting on the fact that in the last few years more than 1 billion euros in criminal money has been laundered in the Netherlands in this way.

The cars are paid with cash. The Dutch police have been working on this phenomenon since 2016 when investigators scrutinized transactions at a car company in Hoogeveen. The Germans are now on the trail of a Lebanese group from Berlin that buys Dutch second-hand cars from the more expensive segment on a large scale with drug profits.

The destination of the cars often does not correspond to reality. On paper, they often go to non-existent firms in Eastern Europe. This way millions of VAT are evaded.

According to a rough estimate, the total sum of criminal money laundered annually in the Netherlands is around 16 billion.

Hanau shooting: eight dead in attack on shisha bars in German town
Police in Germany say suspects still are large after two shootings in town near Frankfurt

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ead-several-people-shisha-near-frankfurt

Aussiedlers in Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne and other majority cities. Aussiedlers are of german descent that grew up in Soviet Union, they are part of the Russian OC, but slightly different.
Dusseldorf is the capital of OC in Germany, everyone has something going on in the city. Aussiedler, Russian OC, Albanians, Ndrangheta in narcotics mainly Cocaine, Camorra mainly construction, La Cosa Nostra they have been quite for over a decade but still there, Balkans different nationalities are often violent and do jobs for other OC groups or work for them. Turks have a large presence in the city but I have been told they seem to have decreased in membership and activities this past decade, Yakuza like the Turks have decreased in both but have gone more white collar, Greeks mainly smuggling and fraud, but like the Turkish and Yakuza have also decreased. There are also traveling crime groups that visits that city.

On the town outside Frankfurt, until more details arrive, I suspect the Serbians or Moroccans, those two are major groups in the area and have been known to be violent for half a decade.

he was a right-wind terrorist

Yeah has become a big problem in Germany. Last week police arrested twelve men, one a police employer, on charges of forming and supporting a far-right terrorism network.

Germany is actually a huge melting pot of organized crime. As a whole Germany doesn't have the violent crime reputation for instance the UK or France have, but the sheer amount of shady groups doing business in Germany is staggering.

Sicilian mafia, Ndrangheta and Camorra all have cells in Germany. Lots of low-key operation in the Rhineland and throughout the rest of Germany as well. Restaurants, pizzerias, gelaterias...are all used as fronts.

OC from the former Soviet Union traditionally has a foothold in Germany as well. Russian groups like Tambovskaya and Solntsevskaya are active in Berlin, mostly regarding money laundering. If I'm not mistaken some time ago about 20 Tambovskaya members were arrested in Berlin. Chechen groups have shown up in Berlin as well.
Thüringen on the other hand is a major base of operation for Armenian OC. There've been reports of Georgian, Azerbaijani and Yazidi criminals operating there as well.

Lots of Balkan OC as well. Serbian and Montenegrin groups for instance were among the first foreign organized crime groups to get a foothold in Germany. Serbian/Montenegrin gangs used to be extremely powerful in Frankfurt. Groups originating from the Sandzak had a lot of operations in Baden-Württemberg. "ex-Yugoslavian OC" didn't leave, but is a lot more under the radar these days.
Albanian clans from Kosovo and Northern Albania made quite a few headlines a few years ago. A lot of their activity was/is centered in Hamburg, but for instance Stuttgart was another base of operation.

Germany has a large Turkish population so Turkish OC of course has traditionally been very strong in Germany as well. Plenty of traditional Turkish organized crime in Germany is actually Kurdish. The Baybasin from Diyarbakir for instance trafficked a ton of heroin throughout Germany. The Kitay clan - Zaza Kurds from the Bingöl/Dersim region - were notorious heroin traffickers in the Rhineland as well.
Turkish mobs from the Black Sea region, like for instance the "Oflu clan", traditionally trafficked heroin into Germany as well. Not sure if they still operate a lot in Germany these days.
German-born Turks overwhelmingly have origins in Central Anatolia. They tend to join biker gangs. Hells Angels Turkey for instance seems to be a charter mostly consisting of German-born Turks. Chapter president Neco Arabaci used to control a lot of activity in Cologne before he was exiled to Turkey. They conduct plenty of trafficking in narcotics and prostitution as well. Illicit proceeds are invested in property in several Central Anatolian cities like for instance Kirsehir.

There've been a lot of reports on the "Arab clans" for some time now. This mostly concerns a few large families like Al Zein, Rammo and Miri and their related families like Saado and Fakhro. These are Mhallami/Mardinelli clans who emigrated from Lebanon to a few major German cities: Berlin of course, but also Bremen and several smaller cities in the Ruhr.
Not all of the well known Lebanese clans are "Mardinelli" tho. For instance the Chahrour clan is a large Shi'ite clan originally from Beirut and the Bekaa and they're very strong in Berlin (maybe even on par with Al Zein).

Germany always had one of Europe's strongest biker communities as well. The traditional German Hells Angels have always shared a close cooperation with their counterparts in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. The Hessen/Frankfurt chapter led by Walter Burkhard is reportedly one of the richest HA chapters in Europe. Law enforcement is trying to prohibit a lot of the traditional HA chapters, but they remain active nonetheless.
There's reputed to be a bit of an internal rift between the old school German chapters and the more "Turkish" chapters that report to Neco Arabaci. Make no mistake though, as both sides are very capable and dangerous, but it doesn't seem like they're going to let anything getting in the way of business.

A few other groups are active in Germany as well;

Nigerian groups traffic in cocaine and operate plenty of prostitution rackets.

Greek groups have their gambling and fraud vices on the side.

Moroccan groups are less large scale than they are in the Netherlands and Belgium, but several Moroccan criminals in Germany have family members in the other countries (since most of them have origins in either Nador or in the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region in the north of Morocco) so they got plenty of opportunities to traffic in cocaine as well.

Asian OC is very much Vietnamese dominated. Neighboring Czech Republic is ground zero for Vietnamese OC and they operate mainly in cities like Cheb and Varnsdorf which are close to the German border. So a lot of Vietnamese OC boils over from the Czech Republic into Germany.

The Palestinian Abou-Chaker clan is also powerful in Berlin over 200 members.

Abou-Chaker got most of their notoriety from their links to Bushido, but compared to for instance Al-Zein or Rammo they're not that big.

Yeah after their feud Bushido is now protected by the Rammo clan, who are twice as big as Abou-Chaker 400-500 members.

Yep, and quite a bit more dangerous. Abou-Chaker did some pimping and a few robberies, Rammo on the other hand got bodies under their belt. Bought plenty of estate in Lebanon as well. No contest.

Berlin police raid suspected mafia clans
Some 300 officers are involved in the raids reportedly targeting alleged crime clan chief Arafat Abou-Chaker. This is the latest development in Germany's nationwide fight against the mounting threat of organized crime.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-mafia-clans-bushido-organized-crime/a-54898798

Drug raids in Berlin after hacking EncroChat phones
l16 hours ago

In a major anti-drug campaign in Berlin, heavily armed agents raided more than 20 homes and commercial premises. According to Der Spiegel the operation was aimed at the notorious Remmo family, who play a major role in the drug trade in the German capital. The police action had been prepared for months.

In addition to drug trafficking and prostitution, members of the Arab-German Remmo clan are also ‘specialized’ in spectacular robberies. For example, they are held responsible for a spectacular museum burglary in 2019. At the time, priceless jewelery was stolen from the Grünes Gewölbe museum in Dresden.

“Clans are really a headache file. They totally disregard the law and are involved in a constant game of cat and mouse with the police”, correspondent Judith van de Hulsbeek said about the Remmo family.

EncroChat
According to Der Spiegel In the major drug investigation, the police and the judiciary used cracked data from the EncroChat messaging service.

Last summer, the Dutch and British police announced that employees had read for weeks with encrypted messages from criminals who thought they had been unobserved for years on EncroChat. The messages already play a leading role in dozens of criminal cases in the Netherlands and police forces worldwide are now using the exchanged data in investigations.

The most famous find thanks to EncroChat in the Netherlands was the underworld prison in Wouwse Plantage, in North Brabant.

Police also said there were tensions between the Remmos and a clan of Chechen origin.

The Dutch police arrested a notorious German criminal in Amsterdam on Tuesday morning. German media write that it concerns the 60-year-old Thomas Drach. He is suspected of committing three armed robberies on money transports in Germany. In 1996 he kidnapped industrialist Jan Philipp Reemtsma. He was released after paying (converted) more than 16 million euros in ransom.

German media write that Drach and others committed three cash in transit robberies with automatic rifles in 2018 and 2019, including at IKEA stores in Cologne and Frankfurt and at Cologne / Bonn airport. Millions were captured. Some money runners were seriously injured by bullets. The robbers always used cars that had been stolen in the Netherlands.

The Hamburg millionaire Reemtsma was released after more than a month after the family had paid the ransom without the knowledge of the police. Drach traveled to Uruguay and other South American countries, among others, with part of the ransom. He was arrested in Argentina in 1998 and after a few years extradited to Germany. He was eventually sentenced to 14 years in prison. 1.5 million euros of the ransom has been found. Several fellow kidnappers have since died. He was released in 2013.

Drach is said to have been arrested in the Frederik Hendrikbuurt in Amsterdam-West.