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Hanover (dpa / lni) - With a cross-border raid and 20 arrests, investigators from the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office smashed the structures of a gang of drug smugglers.
The key figures were arrested, said the chief criminal director at the LKA, Christian Zahel, on Thursday in Hanover.
One day earlier, 65 objects were searched at the same time, including apartments and houses, commercial properties and allotments in the Hanover area, in the Celle area, in Halle in Saxony-Anhalt as well as in Hamburg and Latvia.
However, there are other groups, he emphasized.
During the searches, the more than 1,000 officers deployed found over 100 kilograms of marijuana, 7 kilograms of cocaine, weapons such as sharp pistols, long guns and stun guns, as well as assets of 1.3 million euros.
This includes around 800,000 euros in cash, a sports boat and expensive cars and vintage cars, said public prosecutor Oliver Eisenhauer.
18 arrest warrants had been executed and two others had been requested, and two arrest warrants had been executed in Latvia.
The penalty range is up to 15 years.
According to the information, the searches took place mainly in the greater Hanover area.
A second focus was Celle.
It is about a “tightly constructed and conspiratorial” group of perpetrators, said LKA President Friedo de Vries.
In the case of drugs, the "supply pressure" to Germany and Europe has increased significantly, despite a number of successes in the fight against drug crime, the availability of drugs remains "very high".
The dark field is large.
He did not want to say anything about possible links to other proceedings.
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Zahel called the result of the raid the "greatest success of the joint investigation team in 30 years".
The head of the gang is Hanoverian.
The investigators accuse the accused of having imported tons of drugs from Spain and sold them in Germany since at least 2017.
Covert investigations by the joint investigation team of the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office and the Hanover Customs Investigation Office in cooperation with the Hanover public prosecutor's office had led to the raid.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210304-99-687278 / 2