Staying power required: How the state fights against the clans

For the last five years, the state has been fighting criminal clans, no-go areas and spectacular raids. An end is not yet in sight.

The bang is deafening. In the early morning of June 8, 2021, an armored car rammed the front door of a villa in Leverkusen and pushed it open. Masked police officers storm the property. Similar scenes, albeit with slightly lighter equipment, are taking place at the same time in Düsseldorf, Bochum, Wuppertal and Cologne. This morning, 600 task forces, some of them heavily armed, searched 31 objects in a total of 15 cities. At the end of the day, they secured almost 350,000 euros, firearms, jewellery, luxury watches and blank certificates for corona tests. The villa, worth almost 800,000 euros, is also confiscated at first.

North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul proudly announces that the main suspect is “one of the absolute top people in clan crime in North Rhine-Westphalia”. Not only was he arrested, but his home was taken away from him. We are talking about the extended El-Zein family, a clan from the Turkish-Arab ethnic group of the Mhallami. It is being investigated for gang fraud, six-figure welfare fraud, money laundering and extortion.

It was a long way to the raid in Leverkusen. In some major cities, entire streets, even neighborhoods, have been in the hands of clans for years. In this parallel world, people care neither about integration nor about German legislation – especially not when it comes to banal things like the road traffic regulations. In some cities in the Ruhr area mountains of unpaid fines are piling up – for wrong parking, for speeding, for unroadworthy cars and the like. Members of well-known families receive payment requests time and again, but they do not pay. And sending out bailiffs wouldn’t be without risk.

Because if officials let themselves be seen in the clan quarters, this spreads quickly. Within minutes, twenty or thirty clan members create a menacing atmosphere. This is more than uncomfortable for uninvolved neighbors. “The excitement is greatest where people are affected themselves, because they are no longer safe in their surroundings and in their districts – because they can’t send their children onto the streets because some are racing because drugs are being sold,” says the psychologist Ahmad Mansour, an excellent expert on the scene.

Witnesses are threatened or bought

Of course, many of the estimated 200,000 clan members nationwide are not criminals. But there are criminals among the Remmos, the Abou Chakers, the El-Zeins, the Miris, the Gomans and others. Families whose only business model is organized crime and who don’t shy away from murder. “We have crime structures here that have developed within family groups with role models of the big brother who shows the younger generation: You can make money with crime. And that means that we have a lot of crime in these families,” says the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Münch.

“The problem arose more than 30 years ago,” says BKA boss Munich, “we will have to have staying power.”

(Photo: ntv)

Ahmed* comes from such a well-known family. He’s tall, muscular, and dominant. He doesn’t want to say his name, he also keeps his business model to himself. But it seems worth it. “Look, the normal worker works 40 hours a week from Monday to Friday and earns 1400 net.** We need the money if we go out to eat with the boys today or tomorrow. How are we supposed to live on it or pay our rent? ” The fact that his business model conflicts with the law doesn’t bother Ahmed. “I’ve had at least 40 charges in my life, and I managed with my lawyer to stay out of jail, thank God,” he says candidly. When lawyers can’t help, witnesses are massively threatened or bought. Internal disagreements regulate so-called justices of the peace.

“As far as I can remember, the robbery of a poker tournament was the decisive turning point, where it became clear that we had to tackle this crime phenomenon more consistently,” reports Martin Steltner from the Berlin Attorney General’s Office. This raid took place in 2010. Five years ago, when the talk of “no-go areas” became more and more common, the topic started to move again. The North Rhine-Westphalian state government wanted to analyze the scene and first had a situation picture created. NRW made the decision to punish even the smallest offences. Traffic tickets are not only written faster, the fines are also collected with the support of the police.

“Follow the money”

The next step is raids – lots of raids. The police, customs, tax office, public order and health office, and public prosecutors work together to uncover violations and criminal offences. From July 2018 to August 2021 there were 1,800 raids in North Rhine-Westphalia alone, and more than 4,500 objects were checked, including numerous shisha bars and betting shops. 2,400 criminal charges were filed and more than 12,000 fines imposed. The special public prosecutor’s offices operate according to the motto “follow the money”. So they try to uncover how the relevant shops are financed, how real estate purchases are processed and how the new Porsche of a welfare recipient was actually paid for. “Somewhere, of course, a criminal always has to communicate with others, for example when it comes to investing assets, and that’s the starting point for our investigations,” explains BKA boss Münch.

One of the most important measures, asset recovery, is being expanded more and more. Assets can now be confiscated if there is only a suspicion that they were paid for with illegally obtained money. And while previously illegally acquired assets were often transferred to third parties in order to protect them from access, investigators are now able to access such money. In the end, the judges still decide. In Berlin, 2 of the 77 properties owned by the Remmo clan have already changed hands and now belong to the state. Rental income can also be collected.

But the not so honorable society is quite creative. For example, the Goman clan, which has established itself with a lot of criminal energy in the fields of facade and terrace cleaning or in horticulture. Numerous mailbox companies offer cheap offers in daily newspapers. Unfortunately only against advance payment, and once payment is made, the workers are never seen again. Neither does the money, of course. Callbacks are diverted, as “Spiegel TV” reports, and at some point the connection can no longer be reached.

It should be made as difficult as possible for the criminals

Others have turned overpriced key or carpet cleaning services into a lucrative business. Drug deals, trade in medicines, burglaries and fraud in all variations, money lending at outrageous conditions, prostitution and dangerous bodily harm are still very popular. There, where a lot of money can be made with little effort, the criminal families still let off steam. The money is laundered in legal transactions, or it is transferred abroad, returns to Germany in a roundabout way and is invested here, for example in real estate.

Despite the increased efforts of the state, the criminal clans are not expected to be history anytime soon. But the aim is to make their criminal life as difficult as possible. “I just want to point out that there is no real estate register in Germany. And so we have to carry out extensive investigations to determine whether someone has invested money in real estate in any city in Germany, for example,” says Holger Münch. There are still opportunities to increase transparency and simplify the investigation methods. Legally, many are calling for the increased use of video recordings when questioning witnesses so that they cannot be reversed later. The exchange of information with domestic and foreign authorities and banks could be significantly expanded. And more and more frequently, consistent deportations of clan offenders are also being demanded. So there is still a lot to do, says Münch. “The problem arose more than 30 years ago and we will have to have staying power.”

*) Name changed

**) In fact, a full-time worker earned on average in 2020 3975 euros gross per month, so also net more than assumed by “Ahmed”.

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