In Germany, too, investigators took action today against the Calabrian mafia organization ‘Ndrangheta. According to MDR and FAZ, there are overlaps between the operation and a twenty-year-old anti-mafia procedure in Thuringia.
It’s an operation that shows how the Calabrian mafia ‘Ndrangheta and their alleged supporters maintain a network that spans the world. At dawn the anti-mafia raid “Eureka” took place.
Filippo Spiezia, coordinator for Italy at the EU judicial authority Eurojust, spoke at a press conference in Reggio Calabria of an operation “of unprecedented scope”.
132 suspects arrested
According to Spiezia, 155 people are said to have been the focus of the investigators. The European police authority Europol, where the threads of the entire operation ran together, reported the arrest of a total of 132 suspects during the day.
The investigators searched more than 60 objects in five federal states.
Investigators conducted raids in various countries, including Italy, Germany, Portugal, Belgium and Spain. In Germany, forces from Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland were involved in the operation.
A total of more than 1000 emergency services, including special forces and service dog handlers, searched more than 60 objects. The dpa news agency reported the arrest of around 30 suspects.
Apparently links to ‘Ndrangheta
According to information from MDR and the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ), there are mainly three suspected criminal groups that are said to have connections to the ‘Ndrangheta clan from the Calabrian village of San Luca. They are said to have imported large quantities of cocaine from South America to Europe and Australia.
According to investigators, some suspects are said to have worked with the Primeiro Comando da Capital in Brazil, with the Clan del Golfo in Colombia and with an ethnic Albanian group in Ecuador.
Investigators are also investigating the suspicion that the suspects laundered the illegal proceeds from the drug trade, especially in Germany and Portugal, by investing in restaurants, ice cream parlors, real estate and car washes, among other things.
normal business activity as camouflage
Oliver Huth, an officer at the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia and head of the “Eureka” investigative commission in Germany, said at a press conference in Düsseldorf: “You sold ice cream balls, espresso. These are everyday actions in life. Nevertheless, we managed to trace a chain of evidence that this daily action benefits the ‘Ndrangheta at the end of the day”.
Trail leads to Thuringia
It is not the first time that people with alleged links to the San Luca ‘Ndrangheta clan have been suspected of laundering funds from illegal activities in Germany. According to information from MDR and FAZ, there are said to be numerous overlaps in “Eureka” with a procedure that was already being conducted in Thuringia in the early 2000s.
In the course of the “Fido” trial at the time, German and Italian investigators investigated the suspicion that numerous suspected ‘Ndrangheta members from San Luca had laundered money from the illegal drug trade, primarily through investments in catering operations in Thuringia and Saxony.
Opened several restaurants as a waiter
According to information from MDR and FAZ investigators are said to have focused on at least three people in “Eureka” who also played a role in the “Fido” process. One of them, Domenico G., was even one of the main suspects at the time.
G. registered in Erfurt as early as 1995 and gave the immigration office the job of waiter with a monthly salary of 2,000 DM (1,023 euros). In the years that followed, he and his partners opened several restaurants and ice cream parlors in Germany and later also in Portugal.
Procedure suddenly discontinued
At the time, investigators were unable to prove that the money for the investments actually came from illegal activities. After two years, the operational measures of the procedure were prematurely discontinued in a strange way. At today’s press conference in Reggio Calabria, chief prosecutor Giovanni Bombardieri described G. as a “key figure in a series of investments in Portugal”.
From investigative documents MDR and FAZ are available, it also emerges that today’s operation is aimed at two other people who also played a role in the “Fido” investigations. Investigators in Erfurt are said to have arrested a well-known Italian restaurateur whose name had already appeared in the “Fido” trial. There was an EU arrest warrant from Italy against the restaurateur.
money laundering in Car wash?
In Munich, investigators are said to have focused on a relative of the restaurateur who lived in Erfurt at the time of “Fido” and was also in the narrow circle of suspects at the time. The man should be indirectly assigned to three car washes in Munich, which investigators see as part of the alleged money laundering system.
After MDR and FAZ had made the “Fido” process and the strange end of its operational measures public for the first time in early 2021, the state parliament in Thuringia set up a committee of inquiry. MEPs are investigating why the proceedings were discontinued at the time. They also want to clarify whether the alleged ‘Ndrangheta members maintained contacts with politicians and institutions in Thuringia.
Connections in politics are examined
“Today’s news makes it clear that our committee is red hot,” said Madaleine Henfling, chairwoman of the investigative committee of the Greens in the state parliament. Henfling, who sees an “enormous amount of catching up to do” in combating the ‘Ndrangheta in Germany, is now calling for committees of inquiry similar to those in Thuringia to be set up in the other affected federal states and in the federal government.
The Federal Criminal Police Office assumes that various clans from San Luca in Germany maintain a total of six local cells, so-called Locali. This emerges from a confidential document that MDR and FAZ could see.
These local cells are said to be in Munich, Erfurt and Saarland, among others – three of the places where investigators were deployed. Only the State Criminal Police Office of Thuringia had confirmed the existence of a “locali” in Erfurt on request.