With numerous searches and arrests, the police in Germany and other European countries have taken action against Italy’s powerful mafia organization ‘Ndrangheta. According to the public prosecutor’s offices in Düsseldorf, Koblenz, Saarbrücken and Munich, emergency services from Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain were involved in the Europe-wide raid on Wednesday. The focus of the raids in Germany was therefore in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Thuringia.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the operation is being led by a joint investigation team involving Europol and the European judicial authority Eurojust. The statement said: “The background is a procedure related to Italian organized crime, which is directed against those responsible and members of the ‘Ndrangheta association.” The suspects are accused of money laundering, gang tax evasion, commercial gang fraud and drug smuggling, among other things.
In Germany, residential and business premises were searched in numerous places. In North Rhine-Westphalia, around 500 emergency services searched a total of 51 houses, apartments, offices and business premises belonging to suspects and executed 15 arrest warrants.
In the Thuringian state capital of Erfurt, four objects were searched and an EU arrest warrant was executed.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, there were 50 search warrants in Rhineland-Palatinate and ten arrest warrants were executed. The emergency services in Rhineland-Palatinate were supported by special units from the federal government and other states, as well as from customs and tax investigators.
According to the information, investigations against eight people are underway in Bavaria. Since the morning, more than 130 emergency services have searched ten objects, and EU arrest warrants have been executed against four people.
In Saarland, a residential building and business premises of a 47-year-old man were searched in Saarbrücken, as well as a room that the man had rented in Saarlouis. The man wanted with an arrest warrant was arrested in Italy. Another 25-year-old from Saarland who was wanted with an arrest warrant was also arrested in Italy. According to the information, around 90 emergency services were involved in the measures, including special units and the riot police.
The investigators initially did not provide any information about the confiscated evidence. The investigations are therefore ongoing.
The ‘Ndrangheta is one of the most powerful mafia organizations in the world and has long been active internationally beyond Italy’s borders. It is native to the Calabria region, the toe of Italy’s “boot” on the mainland opposite the island of Sicily.
It dominates the international drug trade, but also earns its money from the arms trade, money laundering and corruption. Some experts estimate their turnover at more than 100 billion euros. There are around 160 clans in Calabria with an estimated 6000 members.
The term ‘Ndrangheta comes from the Greek and means something like courage or loyalty. The mafia organization is said to have started in the 1860s when a group of Sicilians were banned from the island by the Italian government.
The ‘Ndrangheta also has a solid foothold in Germany. Clans of the organization were responsible, for example, for the mafia murders in Duisburg, in which six people were shot in front of a pizzeria in 2007.
