The federal criminal police office (BKA) is to receive more personnel for the fight against clan crime. Federal interior minister horst seehofer (CSU) told "bild": "the law-abiding citizen is seen as a "victim", german society as prey and our laws and rules as non-binding."
Against it now something is to be done. The aim of the new federal-land initiative to combat clan crime, or "BLICK" for short, is to uncover the structures, working methods and interconnections of criminal clans, reports the newspaper. Armed with this information, the countries on the ground should increase the search pressure on the clans.
"The rule of law must prevail against these criminal subcultures. I have therefore offered the countries every support," seehofer said. The issue will also play a role at the conference of interior ministers in kiel in june.
From the point of view of FDP secretary-general linda teuteberg, the seehofer plan is not very convincing. "The concern to demonstrate the ability to act in accordance with the rule of law in this area, that is correct. But there’s a lot of symbolic politics involved," teuteberg told the deutsche presse-agentur in berlin on tuesday. And much of this the union interior ministers had already been able to do over the past 14 years. "There is a lot that is half-baked and serves first of all for publicity, but not necessarily for the ability to act in accordance with the rule of law."
Seehofer’s announcement to create an additional 11,300 positions in the federal police by 2025 does not solve the problems because the police in the flat are so depleted, teuteberg said. "And where will the personnel come from? The state police forces are already having problems finding enough suitable applicants."
Berlin’s senate wants to prevent high-profile clans from investing their loot in real estate. Senator of justice dirk behrendt (grune) told the "tagesspiegel" (wednesday): "the seepage of bribed money into the legal circuit must be stopped."
According to the senator of justice, there are around 60,000 reports of suspected money laundering traps at the FIU, the responsible office at the customs criminal investigation office, throughout the country. Most of the reports come from banks, so far only five from notaries – and one of them from berlin. Berlin notaries will now be made aware of the issue. Every purchase of an apartment or a plot of land must be notarized by a notary – time and again, associates of known multiple offenders in berlin had bought expensive real estate with suspected loot money.
In january, the bka announced that it would be taking a closer look at crimes committed by turkish and arab clans in germany. The next federal report on organized crime will for the first time include a chapter on "criminal members of large families of ethnically segregated subcultures". A corresponding working group is to be given more than a dozen new positions for this purpose.
In berlin, bremen, lower saxony and north rhine-westphalia in particular, there were intensive investigations into clan crime at the beginning of the year, according to the BKA. In august 2018, for example, police in berlin alone seized 77 properties worth more than nine million euros from an arab clan. The accusation: money laundering. The investigations were directed against a total of 16 family members.
In response to a dpa inquiry, the BKA said on tuesday that local intervention was important, but that the elucidation of criminal connections was an essential factor for success.
In the interview with "bild," seehofer also discussed other current projects of the federal government in the area of security – including the interception of encrypted communications between suspected members of burglary gangs.