The black and yellow state government of Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU), which has been in office in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017, has made the fight against criminal clans one of its most important domestic political priorities.

In the final sprint of the Union's federal election campaign, the issue of internal security should now play an important role.

That is why Union Chancellor candidate Laschet rushed to the police in Essen with Interior Minister Herbert Reul on Monday after the presentation of some members of his team in Berlin to present the latest picture of the clan crime situation.

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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Criminal members of large Turkish-Arab families are mainly active in Bremen, Lower Saxony, Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia - there the regional focus is in the Ruhr area.

In the preliminary discussion with investigators it became clear that they had looked the other way too long on this topic, says Laschet and confidently recommends NRW as a role model.

"The fight against criminal clans is on the agenda across Germany," says the candidate for chancellor.

“In this case, zero tolerance means: The state's monopoly of force is non-negotiable for us.” The “Follow the money” method has proven its worth.

Drug trafficking very lucrative for clans

According to the new management report, the investigators in North Rhine-Westphalia were more successful than ever: In 2020, cars, accounts and cash with a total value of four million euros were seized from clans. "We are concerned about the existence of the criminal clans," says Reul. "2020 was groundbreaking, maybe even something like a turning point."

Nevertheless, it is a marathon run. While the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) still had 111 large families in its clan name list in 2019, it was 112 last year.Although the number of serious crimes such as assault, robbery, fraud or organized crime (OK) registered in the situation report fell by 26 to 5,778, but the number of suspects rose slightly by 47 to 3826. The high proportion of intensive offenders remains striking: around five percent of the suspects are responsible for almost a quarter of the crimes.

From the perspective of Interior Minister Reul, the dimension and the dangerousness of clan crime also makes it clear that 20 percent of all OC investigative proceedings recorded by the LKA in North Rhine-Westphalia were dominated by clan families of Turkish-Arab origin. The drug trafficking plays an important role for criminal clans, because enormous profits can be made there. "Members of the clan use their family structures on a national and international level," says the situation report. The participations range from “references to the foreign production sites to financing, transport and distribution at the local level”.

In Bochum, investigators found out that a local Turkish-Lebanese family was buying large quantities of cocaine from the Netherlands for trade.

The main suspects are a Lebanese and a Turk, as well as a Brazilian with Lebanese roots who obtained the cocaine in South America.

In November, the police searched 20 apartments and business premises in North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen and Baden-Württemberg and arrested nine suspects.

Interior Minister Reul convinced of his path despite criticism

The LKA lists a number of other successes in its situation report. Drug gangs could also be convicted in Essen, Bochum and Steinfurt. In Steinfurt, the police tracked down ten clan members with German and Swedish citizenship who traded drugs and weapons across Europe and had close ties not only to Sweden but also to the Netherlands.

Four of the men accused of having traded 150 kilograms of hashish, 160 kilograms of amphetamines and eight kilograms of cocaine were arrested in December. In this case alone, the investigators were able to initiate an asset arrest of 1.5 million euros. Among other things, through the investigations of the Düsseldorf LKA, it was possible to dig a call center in Izmir, Turkey, at the beginning of December. From there, criminals used the so-called grandchildren trick in Germany to deprive senior citizens of large amounts of cash.

Many cases of clan crime begin with raids in shisha bars or gambling halls, which at first glance appear to be low-threshold, and which are repeatedly criticized by the opposition in Düsseldorf because they only punish administrative offenses and confiscate untaxed tobacco. But Reul is convinced that the "policy of 1000 pinpricks" - the heart of his zero tolerance strategy against criminal clans - is extremely effective in order to obtain an ever more complete picture of the situation. Despite corona-related closings, there were 558 such pinprick actions last year, according to the situation report. Of the 1221 hookah bars, restaurants, betting shops and amusement arcades that were controlled, more than 100 were closed. Police officers filed 936 criminal complaints and found around 2,500 administrative offenses.

Another low-threshold approach is described in the situation report as an effective means in the fight against clans: traffic controls. For example, police stopped a man who provoked them with his luxury car. Upon review, it was found that he was charged with more than twenty criminal offenses.