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Police in North Rhine-Westphalia (symbolic image)
Photo: Maximilian Koch / IMAGO
In a large-scale operation against organized drug crime, houses, apartments and business premises were searched on Thursday morning, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The operation is directed against several defendants "who are suspected of illegally cultivating and distributing narcotics," said the Duisburg public prosecutor's office and the State Criminal Police Office. The measures are still ongoing, said a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in the morning, a few hours after the start of the action.
An operation also near Hamburg
There had been searches in eleven cities in North Rhine-Westphalia – in Duisburg, Bochum, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Gladbeck, Wuppertal, Marl, Moers, Dinslaken, Oberhausen and Kalkar. In addition, according to the information, there was still an operation in Halstenbek in southern Schleswig-Holstein.
The spokesman initially did not provide any information about the accused. It is about drug-related crime, but without "direct reference to the mafia," it said. Special police units were also involved in the measures. Details should be given during the day.
ala/dpa