The corona pandemic has had little impact on drug-related crime and the consumption of drugs.

The President of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Münch, said at the presentation of the drug situation report for the past year, only with the "party drug" Ecstasy there had been a noticeable decrease of almost twelve percent of the registered cases.

Overall, drug crime continues to rise in Germany: In 2020, a total of 365,753 cases were registered, 1.7 percent more than the year before.

Johannes Leithäuser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The greatest increases in crime groups were seen in the consumption and trafficking of crystalline methamphetamine (crystal) with 18.9 percent and cocaine with 6.9 percent. According to Münch, cannabis is still the most widely traded and consumed type of drug in Germany. The authorities were therefore aware of 31,961 cases of cannabis trafficking, with amphetamines there were 5581 recorded offenses.

At Crystal, the police are observing a relocation of production from the Czech Republic to the Netherlands, which is leading to higher productions and increasing transit business. The increase in cocaine trafficking and consumption in recent years has continued. In 2020, a record amount of at least eleven tons of cocaine was seized in Germany, which will certainly be exceeded again this year - last February alone there was a seizure of 16 tons of cocaine in the port of Hamburg.

Münch warned that drug crime was "continuing to gain in importance in terms of security policy and society".

He drew attention to the developments in the Netherlands and Belgium, which recently attracted public attention with the murder of journalist Peter R. de Vries.

In the Netherlands there has been violent clashes between drug cartels whose members are of Moroccan or Albanian origin or come from other Balkan countries for almost ten years;

Twenty to thirty homicides are recorded each year.

Crimes are becoming more and more brutal

The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office also reported successful searches through the uncovering of cell phone calls made by criminals in the encrypted radio service EncroChat. More than 2,300 preliminary investigations have now been initiated on the basis of these indications, and 805 arrest warrants have been obtained. In the course of the investigation, 310 firearms with 13,000 rounds of ammunition, more than three tons of cannabis and 200 million euros of allegedly illegal assets were seized.

The drug commissioner of the federal government, the CSU member of the Bundestag Daniela Ludwig, said that the offenses in the drug criminality were carried out "more and more brutal, more and more unscrupulous".

An alliance of the law enforcement authorities must be formed which, with successful searches, can counter the impression that criminals in drug trafficking in Germany can feel as if they are in a lawless area.

Ludwig demanded that more attention should be paid to prevention in order to reduce the demand for drugs.

She announced her own large awareness campaign aimed at cocaine users.

Ludwig emphasized positively that in recent times the demand for substitution treatments, for example by heroin addicts, has risen sharply;

she saw a positive effect of the corona pandemic here.