BERLIN (AP) – Hundreds of German police and other investigators raided more than 20 buildings in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg early Thursday in a crackdown on two fighting organized crime families, authorities said.
Two people, a 44-year-old and a 22-year-old, were arrested, police said. No names were given in line with German privacy laws.
Police last November investigated illegal drug and weapons trafficking, as well as charges of bodily harm related to a “clash of relatives” between an Arab and a Chechen organized crime family. At the time, there were several violent confrontations between the two organizations.
The 44-year-old who was arrested was allegedly part of at least one fraka, although he was monitored by an electronic single, authorities said.
In addition to being suspected of causing bodily harm, the 44-year-old is also accused of violating weapons, as well as running a marijuana plantation and running a cocaine delivery service.
The 22-year-old is being executed on drug and weapons charges, as well as another 22-year-old suspect wanted, police said.
Berlin’s top security official, Interior Minister Andreas Geisel, said the raids showed authorities were keeping a promise to curb organized crime in the capital.
“These searches and arrests show that we stick to it,” he said. “We do not give up in our systematic fight against organized crime, no matter who is behind it.”
Police in Berlin said that in addition to their own SWAT teams and other staff, federal agents, Brandenburg police and tax officials were involved in the raids, a total of more than 500 staff members.
Authorities did not provide further details, but the Bild newspaper reported that one of the targets was the Remmo family, claiming it was related to two recent spectacular heistas.
Two of the main suspects in the 2019 theft 18th-century jewelery from a Dresden museum last year is part of the family that has ties to Beirut.
Mohamed Remmo (21) was arrested Berlin authorities in December in connection with the theft of the Green Vault Museum, while his twin brother, Abdul Majed Remmo, is wanted on an international warrant.
Other members of the Remmo family were convicted last year of a similarly spectacular robbery, theft of a 100-kilogram (220-pound) Canadian gold coin called the ‘Big Maple Leaf’ in 2017 at Berlin’s Bode Museum.
The coin, with an estimated value of 3.75 million euros ($ 4.45 million), has not yet been recovered and authorities think it was probably cut into smaller pieces. and sell.