As of: February 22, 2024, 1:41 p.m
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One of five defendants stands handcuffed in a courtroom at the regional court.
© --/dpa
Two rival groups are fighting openly.
Dozens of men are arrested and the first verdicts are expected.
How far are the investigations?
And why are the groups fighting each other?
Stuttgart - In the investigation into the ongoing series of violence in the Stuttgart area, the police and the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) want to increase the pressure on the two rival groups and also take a more strategic approach.
Among other things, the LKA will in future investigate the leadership ranks, while the police headquarters in the area will keep an eye on the surroundings of the groups and their followers, as Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) announced on Thursday in Stuttgart.
Since July 2022, there have been repeated clashes between two rival, multi-ethnic groups in the greater Stuttgart area.
The highlight of this bloody gang feud was the attack with a hand grenade on a mourning community in Altbach (Esslingen district) last June.
According to the Interior Ministry and the LKA, the total of around 550 followers and supporters are mainly young men who are already known to the police.
“Some of them have a migrant background, and the core of the groups also includes several people of Kurdish ethnicity,” said Strobl.
The groups come primarily from the Zuffenhausen and Göppingen regions as well as Stuttgart and Esslingen.
It is not yet entirely clear why the two groups joined forces and why they are fighting each other so bloodily.
“It is not organized crime in the classic sense, nor is it about family clans or classic gang crime,” said the Interior Ministry and the LKA.
The violence escalated after mostly mutual insults to honor; it was about territorial claims to power and the motto “Crime as a lifestyle”, with which many in the groups strongly identified.
According to the LKA, a total of 56 people have been arrested so far as part of the series of violence, most of whom are in prison.
dpa