Status: 11/16/2022 4:13 p.m
Human and drug trafficking, money laundering: According to Federal Interior Minister Faeser, organized crime has not been taken seriously enough for too long. That should change, among other things by a cash upper limit.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to take tougher action against organized crime. For too long, they “didn’t take it seriously enough”. The aim must be to “sustainably break up criminal structures and consistently skim off incriminated profits,” says a corresponding strategy paper that Faeser presented at the autumn conference of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
“Human trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering – all areas of organized crime have one thing in common: the perpetrators’ unscrupulous pursuit of profit and power,” she warned. The financial damage in Germany is estimated at 2.2 billion euros for 2021, the income generated at 1.4 billion euros.
The view of organized crime in this country is more influenced by film and television or clichés. But this does not do justice to reality, it downplays the crimes and mocks the victims, said Faeser. In addition, the willingness to use violence is increasing. “We see a growing danger that armed conflicts will also be directed against representatives of the state,” warned Faeser. European countries such as the Netherlands and Sweden have already had “painful experiences” here. She does not want to allow such developments in Germany.
Limit cash payments
A Europe-wide cash limit should help, as a ministry spokesman said in Berlin. It should be around 10,000 euros. In some EU countries there are already similar limits – in Italy it is 2000 euros. This reduces the risk of concealing the origin of large assets, according to the strategy paper.
The intention: Big criminals should no longer be allowed to pay for luxury cars, real estate and other things in cash with proceeds from illegal transactions and thus be able to launder the money clean.
Faeser’s concept also includes expanding the evaluation, analysis and investigative capacities of the Federal Criminal Police Office and creating a joint federal-state platform for combating OC. The transport and distribution channels of OC groups would have to be identified and broken up.
Allocate and confiscate assets
Measures are also planned to facilitate the attribution – and possible confiscation – of assets derived from organized crime proceeds. This applies in particular to the real estate sector.
Therefore, for the first time, a nationwide central building and apartment register should be set up, which collects information and makes it accessible to the authorities.
“Alliance Against Clan Crime”
In the fight against clan crime, a nationwide picture of the situation should be created for the first time. In this context, Faeser spoke of an “alliance against clan crime”. It is absolutely unacceptable “that criminal members of clans are isolated in their family structures and live according to their own value system outside of our constitutional state.”
The Federal Minister of the Interior said that all means of the rule of law should be used to counter such developments. Nobody is above the law. “And that’s what these members of the clans have to learn – the hard way if they have to.”