crime
Raid against usurers in the Ruhr area
North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) speaks to a police officer from the special forces. Photo: Roland Weihrauch/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Locksmith, pipe cleaner or exterminator: A man who is said to have offered overpriced services has now been arrested in Essen. He is said to have connections to the clan milieu.
With the help of a special task force (SEK), the police arrested a man (24) with a clan connection in the Ruhr area city of Essen, who is said to have exempted people with overpriced fitter services with five accomplices.
The gang members are said to have posed as locksmiths, pipe cleaners or exterminators and demanded an average of 1,000 euros from the victims. The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of the Interior, Herbert Reul (CDU), saw the operation for himself early on Saturday morning. A total of 200 police officers were involved in the raid.
Since the 24-year-old main suspect is known to the police, among other things, for violations of the weapons law, the SEK took him out of his apartment. He was taken into custody. He is accused of commercial fraud. The man and his accomplices are said to have delivered poor or no work at all – for which horrendous sums were then called. According to investigators, the suspects also deducted more from their victims’ EC cards in several cases.
According to Reul, all six suspects belong to a larger gang with contacts in the clan milieu. There are other participants in call centers who would have given the “alleged fitters” the orders. There were 151 known cases of fraud across Germany. The damage is 151,000 euros, according to Reul. But one assumes far more deeds.
“These were unsuspecting people who ordered help and got scammers – I find that really perfidious,” said Reul. With every single arrest, the criminal clans are “more and more on the pelt,” according to the interior minister: “They should know that we are on their trail.”