Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) – Criminals used the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia a year and a half ago to commit more than 1000 crimes. This emerges from a report by the state government in response to a request from the AfD parliamentary group, as announced by the NRW Ministry of Justice on Friday.
Accordingly, the judiciary and police have registered 1057 crimes, almost half of which could be cleared up. The emergency situation of the population was exploited in 632 property crimes. The report records embezzlement, robberies, looting of shop windows and dozens of burglaries.
Of the 275 suspects identified, 196 did not have a German passport, according to the report by North Rhine-Westphalia Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach (Greens). 92 Romanians, 13 Turks, 12 Bulgarians, 12 Serbs and 8 Syrians were identified as suspects. Two of the accused are members of Kurdish-Lebanese clans. The “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” had previously reported.
For the other 425 crimes, 350 suspects were identified, a good two-thirds of whom were German. These proceedings included arson, bodily harm, subsidy and benefit fraud, embezzlement and environmental crimes.