“There is a drug war going on that the police have no control over”

Created: 01/11/2023, 20:00

By: Elias Bartl

In Tonndorf, unknown persons shot an Audi with an automatic weapon.

Around 10 shots hit the driver.

© Hamburg News

After several shootings in Hamburg, the Association of German Criminal Investigators raises serious allegations: There is a "dark field of crime".

Politics is to blame.

Hamburg – The heavy armament of the perpetrators and the victims is frightening and reminds those involved of a drug war.

Without considering bystanders, automatic weapons are fired in the middle of a residential area in Hamburg.

Around 20 shots hit an Audi and its occupants in Tonndorf early Tuesday morning.

A man is critically injured.

It was not until July 2022 that a hit squad executed a 27-year-old in a shisha bar in front of dozens of bystanders.

Then, as now, the trail led to the organized drug milieu.

10,000 reported crimes unprocessed - "just frustrating"

The Hamburg chairman of the Association of German Criminal Investigators (BDK), Jan Reinecke, is making serious allegations and says: "There is a drug war over which the police have no control".

"There is a lack of opportunities to determine criminal structures, because the IT possibilities of the police are a disaster and data protection also sets us insurmountable limits."

Reinecke predicts that this would lead to major logistical problems: "Due to the lack of staff in the Hamburg LKA almost 10,000 reported crimes remain unprocessed in the investigators' inboxes.

The Hamburg police simply lack the resources for the important prosecution of organized and drug-related crime.”

In July 2022, a man was shot dead in the shisha bar on Lübecker Strasse.

The background is said to have been drug deals.

© Elias Bartl

New generation of drug dealers no longer shy away from gun violence

Last year there were around ten shootings on the streets of Hamburg, most of which were due to disputes in the drug scene.

It is about ever smaller gangs that operate without traditional structures.

According to the chairman of the BDK, this leads to a new level of violence: "We are dealing with a generation of criminals from the drug milieu who do not shy away from simply shooting their opponents."

We have dead people on the streets of Hamburg again

Jan Reinecke, Hamburg Chairwoman of the Association of German Criminal Investigators (BDK)

"What we see here is the dark field of drug-related crime, which politicians have not wanted to see for years," he says.

"Due to the lack of political support for the investigators, the work for many colleagues in the criminal police is only frustrating."

More than 260 arrest warrants in the EncroChat complex – the interior authority defends the Hamburg police

Police conducted around 520 searches in connection with the EncroChat complex.

A suspect was arrested by the SEK in Neustadt.

© Elias Bartl

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The Hamburg interior authority rejects the allegations.

Press spokesman Daniel Schaefer does not want to leave the allegations without context: "The overall budget of the police has increased continuously in recent years and will exceed one billion euros for the first time in the coming budget.

The LKA has recently also benefited from this significant growth, especially in the area of ​​organized crime fighting.”

Anyone who claims that the LKA is “run down” and that the officers have lost control over organized crime “is discrediting the successful work of the very committed and competent colleagues in the organized fight against crime."

Interior authority refers to constant increase in staff in the police force

Schaefer has a current example ready: “The personnel-intensive investigations in the so-called EncroChat complex in Hamburg alone recently led to the execution of more than 260 arrest warrants, the implementation of around 520 searches and the confiscation of millions in cash.

So far, around 330 investigations have been initiated by the Hamburg police.”

Overall, the police force has been expanded by 300 jobs in recent years and by around 500 employees in terms of the number of staff available every day: “If you include the police employees, that falls Growth is even higher.” Schaefer is certain:

The number of police officers will continue to grow in the future.

Daniel Schaefer, spokesman for the Hamburg Interior Authority, on the resources of the police

Reinecke on the EncroChat procedure in Hamburg: Thanks are due to the French and Belgian authorities

But to what extent is the investigation success in the so-called EncroChat complex a real success of the German investigative authorities?

Jan Reinecke has a clear opinion on this.

“The three months in which we got an insight into the structures of organized and drug-related crime through the EncroChat process were a stroke of luck for the German police authorities.

Thanks, however, go to French and Belgian law enforcement agencies.

German authorities would never have been able to do this simply because of the strict data protection regulations.”

Opposition is alarmed: "The use of firearms carries the risk of injuring bystanders"

One hears approval for trade unionists Reinecke from the opposition.

Dennis Gladiator, domestic policy spokesman for the CDU, which recently focused on internal security in Hamburg, warns: "The increase in massive clashes that are believed to be taking place in the drug environment is alarming.

Above all, the use of firearms by the perpetrators carries the risk that uninvolved third parties can be injured by grazing shots or ricochets.”

For Dennis Gladiator, the red-green Senate is still failing to respond to the danger accordingly: "Hamburg in particular is a gateway for organized drug crime due to its port.

For years, however, the Senate has been turning a blind eye to the fact that more and more clan members are expanding their activities to Hamburg.

The interior senator must finally see that and control the setting of priorities and staffing in the LKA accordingly!”