The number of investigations into criminal gangs in Germany increased enormously in 2021.
The main reason for the increase of around 17 percent compared to the previous year to 696 procedures is information that comes from the 2020 decrypted secret communication from criminals via the provider Encrochat.
Numerous drug dealers convicted
As the picture of organized crime (OC) published by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) on Wednesday shows, more and more suspects attributed to OC groups are armed.
While the proportion of armed suspects was still around 6.4 percent in 2020, a weapon was seized from 7.5 percent of suspects last year.
In 2020, the police in the Netherlands and France managed to siphon off more than 20 million secret Encrochat messages.
As a result, numerous drug dealers were also convicted in Germany.
According to the BKA, the fact that the number of fraud offenses has risen sharply in the past year shows how quickly some criminal gangs react to new opportunities to commit crimes.
The number of procedures in which references to the corona pandemic were identified tripled in 2021 compared to the previous year.
"This increase is largely due to the unlawful application for and use of emergency corona aid from the federal government," says the situation report presented by BKA President Holger Münch in Berlin together with Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).
The Federal Criminal Police Office put the financial damage caused by OC groups last year at 2.2 billion euros.
For comparison: In the previous year, the total was around 837 million euros.