Current situation

The district police authorities and the NRW State Criminal Police Office investigated a total of 1,284 suspects in 80 organized crime cases, including 555 Germans and 729 non-Germans from 50 different countries of origin. Alongside money laundering, property crime and violent crime, international drug trafficking is by far the most important area of activity for OC groups. In this area of crime, the police were able to obtain important investigative content for solving crimes and information on perpetrator structures, in particular by decrypting and evaluating communication data from three crypto messenger services in 30 OC proceedings.

Financial investigators estimate the assets that OC groups obtained through their criminal activities in 2022 at more than 163.8 million euros. In the course of asset recovery measures, more than 21.9 million euros were provisionally secured over the course of the year.