crime
Major raids against smugglers in eight federal states
In total, more than 1,000 federal police and public prosecutors were involved in the operation. photo
© Gianni Gattus/dpa
The gang is said to have sold residence permits primarily to Chinese people for a lot of money – in hundreds of cases. Now the judiciary has struck, and 1,000 officers were deployed early in the morning.
In a large-scale raid against an international smuggling gang in eight federal states, the public prosecutor’s office Düsseldorf had ten suspects arrested.
More than 1,000 federal police and public prosecutors have been involved in the operation since early morning. A total of 101 residential and business premises were searched, including 2 law firms, as the Federal Police Directorate in Sankt Augustin near Bonn announced. Taking advantage of special rules for foreign skilled workers, the suspected smuggling gang is said to have obtained residence permits for around 350 mostly Chinese nationals in exchange for five- and six-figure euro amounts.
Were immigration office employees bribed?
There were raids in North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Berlin, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Assets were also seized and evidence was searched for. According to the “Bild” newspaper, there is also a suspicion that employees of immigration offices were bribed.
The focus of the investigation was in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the ten accused were also arrested. Among them were a lawyer and a lawyer. A press conference by the public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf was planned for the afternoon. According to a spokesman, the locations were Solingen, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Berlin and Aachen.
What is meant by infiltration?
Smuggling refers to helping people enter Germany illegally, usually in exchange for money. This involves driving services, false documents, travel organization or accommodation. Unauthorized entry and stay are punishable under the Residence Act. Anyone who is in this country without the required residence permit must leave the federal territory. There are prison sentences of between one and 15 years for commercial smuggling.
In 2022, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Police registered 4,936 cases of smuggling across Germany – an increase of almost 30 percent compared to the previous year. The background is the sharp increase in irregular migration to Europe. The current situation report from 2022 states that the perpetrators acted “very professionally and flexibly” and that there was also an increasing willingness to take risks.