Raids and arrests against organized drug trafficking
Created: 12/14/2021 Updated: 12/14/2021, 10:15 AM
The lettering "Police" on a police station.
© Boris Roessler / dpa / symbol image
The Berlin police took action against organized drug trafficking with numerous searches on Tuesday morning.
Since the early hours of the morning, a large number of police, drug investigators from the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) and the public prosecutor's office searched several apartments and other properties in Berlin.
Police and prosecutors said it was being investigated for alleged violations of the Narcotics Act.
Berlin - Several suspects against whom arrest warrants were pending were arrested.
According to a report by “BZ” and “Bild”, the operation was directed against a gang that delivered drugs with so-called coke taxis.
Buyers order their goods via messenger services and have them delivered by messengers.
A Berlin clan is also involved.
Among other things, prison cells were also searched.
The police did not initially confirm this.
Among the searched rooms was an apartment on the ground floor of an apartment building on Katzbachstrasse in Kreuzberg.
In the morning plainclothes police officers stood in the back yard of the house, in the apartment, and carried confiscated evidence to their vehicle.
In the drug trafficking sector in particular, the number of police raids had increased significantly this year - mainly because of the data decrypted in 2020 from the Encrochat messenger service, which is used by many criminals in Europe.
In Berlin alone, 728 preliminary investigations against suspects were ongoing by mid-November.
By then, there had been 55 searches and 31 arrests, as the Senate recently announced in response to a request.
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The Berlin police evaluate a total of more than 1.6 million data records from text messages, voice messages, photos and videos from the decrypted and tapped cell phones.
Almost 40 people are employed in the LKA, said LKA boss Christian Steiof.
100 additional people are currently needed to fight drug crime.
dpa