© dpa
According to the police, the war in Ukraine is leading to increased crime by Russian and Ukrainian gangs in Germany and Berlin.
The Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA) writes in its 2022 situation report on organised crime (OC), which was published on Monday, that "an increasing flow of corresponding criminal actors into the EU area" is to be expected. This is leading to "an increase in relevant crime". It continues: "Already established criminal networks will maintain their importance and expand their criminal portfolio." The focus will be on violent and drug-related crime as well as smuggling offences.
If Ukraine were to be rebuilt, "the resulting legal and criminal earning opportunities would be highly attractive to both Russian and Ukrainian OC structures, which would significantly increase the potential for conflict in many places". This is particularly true for Berlin as the central hub of what the police call Russian-Eurasian Organised Crime (REOK) in Germany.
The situation report lists 69 major investigation complexes and 501 suspects investigated for organised crime in Berlin in 2022. This puts the capital in fourth place in Germany behind the large federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Bavaria. There were 639 investigations throughout Germany. Almost half of the investigations in Berlin involved drug trafficking, followed by property crime such as car theft and burglaries.
The LKA cited "clan crime, especially by suspects of Arab origin", Russian-Eurasian OC with a focus on suspects from Chechnya, internationally organised car theft by gangs from Eastern Europe, rocker crime, human trafficking ("modern slavery") with a focus on perpetrators from South-East Europe, smuggling crime, especially from Vietnam, drug smuggling by international gangs as well as robbery and burglary crime.