Authorities in Germany arrested five men aged between 25 and 51 during raids targeting an alleged criminal network, the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office said. Investigators also enforced asset freezes worth more than €6 million and seized firearms, gold bars and large amounts of cash.
More than 1,000 officers took part in searches at 82 homes and business premises in Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. The operation focused on the Rhine-Main area and involved investigators from Hesse and the Rosenheim Main Customs Office.
Authorities say 10 of the 53 suspects formed a criminal organisation to carry out offences commissioned by others, a model they describe as “crime-as-a-service.” The group is suspected of using an informal shadow banking system known as hawala to transfer several hundred million euros outside Europe, mainly to China, in return for commission. Prosecutors allege that the transfers also involved money laundering.
The group is further accused of helping conceal undeclared employment by issuing fictitious invoices worth well into the tens of millions of euros. Investigators also allege that shell companies rented 41 vehicles worth around €2 million before failing to return them, and that the group financed logistics services in connection with drug trafficking. The remaining 43 suspects are accused of participating in the alleged offences.
Sources: FAZ.