Clan crime is currently one of the most explosive topics in Germany, both for the police and for society. Spectacular criminal cases, violence in public spaces, thematisation in TV series, the supposed loss of authority by the state due to lacking, insufficient or half-hearted intervention, parallel structures and the integration debate – a discussion as to whether the term clan does not already discriminate, ethicise or stigmatise – all this shows on the one hand the necessity of stronger combating, but on the other hand also the problems inherent in this part of organised crime (OC).
The term clan crime
The term "clan" is assumed to refer to family-like structures, which in reality, however, are broken up beyond kinship, e.g., in the course of migration, ethnic affiliation or economic gain.[1] Herein lies the explosive nature of the term and the accompanying criticism of racism, which is all too readily taken up by the perpetrators and used for a perpetrator-victim reversal. The association with clan structures from the Arab culture is leading. In our opinion, this is misleading because there are hardly any structural differences between Italian mafia clans, Russian, Polish or Arab clans. In order to lead the public discourse, but also for corresponding investigation, combating and prevention concepts, a descriptive term is needed.[2] This term was found in the form of "clan" and does not mean racial profiling.
Figure: Distribution of clan crime within OC groupings by origin according to the Situation Report on Organised Crime of the German Federal Criminal Police Office
The Mhallamiye are also called "Lebanese Kurds" in Germany. Of the 41 clan crime groupings mentioned in the situation report, 26 can be attributed to them. This means that their share of the total number of clan crime groupings has increased from 44.4 to 63.4 per cent compared to the previous year, while the share of clan crime groupings of Arab origin has decreased significantly from 31.1 to 14.6 per cent.
In Germany, there are about 15,000 Mhallamiye Kurds. The largest Mhallamiye community in Europe, with about 8,000 members, is in Berlin. The second largest Mhallamiye community in Germany is in Bremen (approx. 2,500 people) followed by Essen/Ruhr (approx. 2,000 people).[3] The number of clan members is only an estimate, as different nationalities and different spellings of surnames do not allow for an exact classification.
Criminal clans that have achieved national notoriety are the Remmo family, which belongs to the Mhallamiye and counts about 500 members [4], and the Abou Chaker clan of Palestinian origin (also from Berlin), which is estimated to have 200-300 members[5]. The Miri clan, which also belongs to the Mhallamiye, consists of an estimated 2,600 people in Bremen alone and a total of 8,000 people nationwide. About half of them have already been investigated by the police. The Al-Zein family from Berlin, also belonging to the Mhallamiye and consisting of about 5,000 members nationwide [1], as well as the Goman clan from Leverkusen, which belongs to the Eastern European Roma, are known due to numerous headlines.[6]
Figure: Dominant nationalities of decision-makers within clan crime groupings
Statistics on clan crime
The phenomenon of clan crime has been described in criminalistics since 2002. Criminal offences in connection with clan crime include organised property crime, narcotics and arms trafficking, human trafficking and (forced) prostitution, as well as serious violent offences and money laundering. Among the clans of Arab origin, the so-called hawala banking should be mentioned in particular. According to estimates by the German Federal Ministry of Finance, hawala banking generates up to 200 billion USD annually; the share of organised crime can only be guessed at.[7]
Since 2018, clan crime has been statistically recorded as part of organised crime. At the level of the federal states, e.g., in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and Lower Saxony, one can look up the State Situation Report on Clan Crime or consult the Federal Criminal Police Office’s (BKA) Situation Report on Organised Crime, in which clan crime is recorded as a separate sub-category.
Table: The most frequent offences of the OC groupings in connection with clan crime[8]
It is important to point out that crimes committed by clans in the areas of general crime, offences against the Administrative Offences Act and brute force offences (such as robbery, assault) are not included in the Federal Situation Report.
This form of reporting shows a supposed decrease in crime. Supposedly, because these figures only represent the so-called bright field and the forms of organised crime, as well as white-collar crime, do not usually become known through criminal charges, but belong to the so-called control crime. Consequently, these must be investigated more on one's own initiative. Experts therefore assume that the figures in the situation reports of the State and the Federal Criminal Police Offices (LKA and BKA) are characterised by strong under-reporting.[9] The danger that arises from this is a decoupling of social perception, which extends to clan-dominated no-go areas and which stands in contrast to this form of crime statistics. Furthermore, it can be assumed that a thinning out of specialised OC departments, sufficient staffing both in the law enforcement agencies and in the judiciary makes use of the statistics for argumentative purposes. In any case, the figures themselves are in contrast to the findings of the Europol report on the Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA), which can be summarised very well with a quote from Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director Europol: "I am concerned by the impact of serious and organised crime on the daily lives of Europeans, the growth of our economy, and the strength and resilience of our state institutions. I am also concerned by the potential of these phenomena to undermine the rule of law.”[10] However, even the methodologically different LKA reports, which also include brute force offences, do not show a clear development or trend in the number of crimes or suspects, as the following example from NRW shows:
Figure: Development of clan crime in NRW from 2016-2020
The assessment of the development from the NRW Situation Report 2020: "The number of clan proceedings remains at a consistently high level of 20% of all OC proceedings."[11] However, the situation report comes to a rarely noticed, positive conclusion that the results of asset confiscation measures doubled in the reporting year.
This can be seen as a positive signal, as the measures necessary for this were introduced in 2017 and now seem to be increasingly bearing fruit. The asset confiscation regulated in the Code of Criminal Procedure was fundamentally amended in June 2017. Since then, courts and public prosecutors can more easily confiscate assets of unclear origin - even without having to prove a specific criminal offence. This quasi-reversal of the burden of proof is considered to be of great importance in the fight against organised crime.[12] With this reform, the German legislature fulfilled its obligation to implement the EU Directive on the Freezing and Confiscation of Instrumentalities and Proceeds from Crime in the European Union (EU Directive 2014/42/EU of 3 April 2014).
The introduced reversal of the burden of proof in asset confiscation has led to public prosecutors actually making greater use of this instrument. In 2018, the judiciary in Schleswig-Holstein ordered the confiscation of assets worth around 18 million euros. Of this, 14.5 million was confiscated for the benefit of the victims and 3.4 million fell to the state. In 2017, there had been only 2.26 million euros for the benefit of the victims and less than one million euros for the state.
There were similar developments in other states. This was the result of enquiries by the German news agency dpa with the ministries. For example, the Hessian judiciary also confiscated significantly more assets from criminal offences in 2018, with the total amounting to around 7.8 million euros, compared to just under 4.3 million euros the year before. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the courts ordered assets worth 13.01 million euros to be confiscated last year, compared to 2.12 million euros in 2017.[13]
In Italy, the reversal of the burden of proof for asset confiscation has existed for more than 20 years. It is not without reason that Italy is considered a model for the fight against organised crime. It is estimated that more than 17,000 properties, estates and companies have been confiscated since its introduction. The damage to the mafia has long been in the double-digit billions.[14] In 2019 alone, over 800 million euros were confiscated in Italy and distributed to non-profit organisations.[15]
When it comes to assessing the economic damage caused by clan crime, there is also no agreement between the individual situation reports and the European, international statistics. In Germany, the federal states of Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Bremen are primarily affected by clan crime. According to the BKA report, more than half of all OC investigations were conducted in these federal states.
Subsequent offence: money laundering
Ultimately, all offences have in common that the origin of the generated wealth is to be concealed. This is where the offence of money laundering comes into play. Criminal clan members channel their illegal income into the economic cycle, "launder" it in order to disguise its criminal origin and to keep it out of the reach of law enforcement authorities.
According to experts, Germany is a paradise for money launderers. According to a dark field study by the University of Halle-Wittenberg, around 100 billion euros are laundered in Germany every year.[16] This works so well in Germany precisely because there is no upper limit for cash payments. Regardless of the price, everything - even luxury real estate - may be paid for in cash. Above 10,000 euros, the buyer only has to show proof of identity. Italy and France have an upper limit of 1,000 euros for cash payments. Spain with 2,500 euros and Greece with only 500 euros also have an upper limit. For these reasons, international money launderers specifically invest in luxury goods and real estate in Germany. After a subsequent resale, they launder their "dirty" money again. In this way, money that has been illegally earned finds its way back into the economic cycle via Germany.
This is where perceptions and social discourse on clan crime come into play:
- Questions of income and behaviour: How can young men afford luxury cars and thus unabashedly endanger the road traffic regulations? Likewise, the gangster lifestyle can be seen as an attractive counter-model to legal income generation as a behavioural issue. Whether in music or film or at the meeting places of young people in and with the corresponding milieu, this can be observed.
- Dominating cityscapes: Shisha bars, betting offices, gambling halls, barber shops, nail studios, tattoo studios, boxing and martial arts clubs - often (partly) legal business fields of clan crime for generating sales for illegal activities, but especially for money laundering. The same applies to an increasing extent to special forms of real estate development and real estate investments, in which the concealment of incriminated funds is in the foreground.
- No-Go-Areas: The aggression and intimidation potential of the clans and the resulting lack of perceived police presence in connection with the parallel societies run by clans lead to a lawless space according to German laws, the so-called no-go areas.
Outlook
Recently, the problem of clan crime has been included in the coalition agreement of the three new governing parties in Germany.[17] According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), it is now a matter of gradually breaking up criminal structures through a whole bundle of different approaches, whereby the focus should not only be on harsh sanctions, but also on patient social work.
In addition to the further intensification of asset confiscation measures, it is important to improve the staffing of the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary as well as the cooperation across states and to digitally network the FIU with the State Offices of Criminal Investigation.
The reorganisation of Section 261 of the Criminal Code in connection with the Anti-Money Laundering Act will also make it increasingly difficult to conceal incriminated funds, which will lead to increased suspicions and approaches for the prosecution authorities. In this context, the efforts in the regulation of cryptocurrencies are also positive, as Europol rightly points out the service orientation of the "criminal entrepreneurs" in general and that of the "virtual asset service providers (VASP)" in particular.
In summary, it can be shown that anti-money laundering has an important significance in the fight against clan crime, which with specific patterns - similar to the Italian mafia families - can also master the challenges of the Lebanese, Arab and Turkish clans.
[1] For more information on the concept of clans in criminalistics, please refer to the understanding of the term in the framework concept of the State Criminal Police Office in Lower Saxony [Landeskriminalamt Niedersachsen (2019), Lagebild Clankriminalität – Kriminelle Clanstrukturen in Niedersachsen, page 5] and the National Situation Report on Organised Crime of the German Federal Criminal Police Office [Bundeskriminalamt (2019), Bundeslagebild Organisierte Kriminalität, page 30].
[2] Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Nr. 434, Clankriminalität als Gefahr für die Innere Sicherheit (I), April 2021, page 5
[3] www.mi.niedersachsen.de/aktuelles/presse_informationen/clan-kriminalitaet-sogenannter-mhallamiye-kurden-115576.html
[4] www.praxistipps.focus.de/clans-in-deutschland-von-abou-chaker-ueber-miri-bis-remmo_116032
[5] www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/verhaftung-clanchef-abou-chaker-clan-1.4289117
[6] R. Ghadban, Arabische Clans-Die unterschätze Gefahr, 2020, page 162
[8] Bundeslagebericht Organisierte Kriminalität 2020
[9] Bannenberg, B. (2020), Wer sucht der findet … Fehlende OK-Ermittlungen; in: KriPoZ 4/2020, page 206
[10] European Union (2021), Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment, page 7
[11] LKA Nordrhein-Westfalen, Clankriminalität – Lagebild NRW 2020, page 3
[12] Dienstbühl, D. (2020), Die Bekämpfung von Clankriminalität in Deutschland: Verbundkontrollen im kriminalpolitischen und gesellschaftlichen Diskurs, in: KrPoZ 4/2020, page 214
[13] www.lto.de/recht/justiz/j/vermoegensabschoepfung-straftaten-staatsanwaltschaften-reform-in-der-praxis-bewaehrt/
[14] www.deutschlandfunk.de/italien-angriff-auf-das-vermoegen-der-mafia-100.html
[15] www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/geldwaesche-paradies-deutschland-100.html
[16] www.bussmann.jura.uni-halle.de/forschung/abgeschlossene_projekte/geldwaeschestudie_i_/
[17] Coalition agreement (www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Koalitionsvertrag/Koalitionsvertrag_2021-2025.pdf), page 107
