38 suspected gang members and 147 people who are said to have been trafficked are being targeted, as the Federal Police Directorate in Sankt Augustin announced on Wednesday. The main suspects are two 42 and 46 year old lawyers from the Cologne area.
In addition to the accusation of smuggling, the public prosecutor's office is also investigating suspicions of bribery and money laundering. The suspects are suspected of using the funds to set up fake companies, fake wage payments, among other things. The Düsseldorf public prosecutor's investigations have been ongoing since 2020, said Julius Sterzel. The residence permits were obtained from the North Rhine-Westphalian immigration offices in the cities of Kerpen and Kerpen, the police said in a statement. The suspects were mostly from China and the Arab world, said Sterzel, who added that the rich clientele were different from most of the people transported by smugglers. The police said that the main suspects paid amounts between 30,000 and 350,000 euros to the law firms.