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Photo: Fotostand / K. Schmitt / imago images / Fotostand
In Hesse and Bavaria, emergency services searched the homes of nine suspects who were said to have rented cars and later sold them with forged documents.
A 29-year-old German and a 21-year-old German were arrested during the action on Tuesday, said the Public Prosecutor's Office in Frankfurt am Main.
The suspects therefore belong to several linked families in the Rhine-Main area.
The measures are part of an investigation complex against gangs "with clan-like structures", which are accused of numerous acts - including fraud, forgery of documents, tax evasion and fraudulent social benefits.
More than 140 officers on duty
According to the information, apartments in Frankfurt am Main, Hanau, Offenbach, Nuremberg and in the Augsburg district were searched.
The alleged gang is said to have rented ten cars with a total value of around 400,000 euros and some resold them.
The optics of the vehicles are said to have been changed to obscure them.
The suspects are also accused of falsifying registration certificates and affixing registration badges from other cars or stolen license plates.
More than 140 officers were on duty.
Numerous pieces of evidence were confiscated, especially electronic means of communication and data carriers, forged identity documents and vehicle documents as well as crime clothes.
The emergency services also came across blank vaccination cards - as »chance finds«.
The sums of money obtained through alleged fraud should be around 2.6 million euros, as the Public Prosecutor General said.
mxw / AFP
