BERLIN (AP) – Hundreds of German police and other detectives raided more than 20 buildings in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg early Thursday in a crackdown on two feuding organized crime families, authorities said.
Police say two people have been arrested, a 44-year-old and a 22-year-old. No names were given in accordance with German privacy law.
Police investigated illegal drug and arms trafficking, as well as physical injury charges related to a “clash of clans” between an Arab and Chechen organized crime family last November, prosecutors said in a joint statement with police. At the time, there were several violent clashes between the two organizations.
The 44-year-old arrested is said to have been part of at least one fracas, despite being monitored via an electronic ankle bracelet, authorities said.
The 44-year-old is not only suspected of causing bodily harm, but is also charged with weapons violations, running a marijuana plantation and operating a cocaine delivery service.
The 22-year-old is charged with drugs and weapons, as is another 22-year-old suspect under investigation, police said.
Berlin’s top security official, Interior Minister Andreas Geisel, said the raids showed authorities were keeping a promise to tackle organized crime in the capital.
“These searches and arrests show our compliance,” he said. “We will not give in to our systematic fight against organized crime, regardless of who is behind it.”
Berlin police said that in addition to their own SWAT teams and other personnel, federal agents, Brandenburg police and tax officials were involved in the raids, totaling more than 500 employees.
Authorities have not provided further details, but Bild newspaper reported that one of the targets was the Remmo family, allegedly linked to two recent spectacular robberies.
Two of the main suspects in the 2019 theft of 18th century jewelery from a Dresden museum last year are part of the family that has ties to Beirut.
Mohamed Remmo, 21, was arrested by Berlin authorities in December in connection with the theft of the Green Vault Museum while his twin brother, Abdul Majed Remmo, is being searched on an international order.
Other members of the Remmo family were convicted last year of an equally spectacular robbery, the theft of a 100 kilogram (220 pound) Canadian gold coin called the “Big Maple Leaf” from the Berlin Bode Museum in 2017.
The coin, estimated at 3.75 million euros ($ 4.45 million), has not yet been recovered and authorities believe it was likely cut into smaller pieces and sold.