The police units were called “Zander”, “Wels” and “Fargo”: Investigators have struck in several federal states against suspected car dealers and corona aid fraudsters – also in Hesse. Two of the main suspects are said to belong to a well-known family clan.
Düsseldorf/Kassel (dpa/lhe) – In a major raid against suspected car thieves and corona aid fraudsters, investigators are also targeting members of a large family clan. Under the code name “Wels”, more than 300 police officers and 10 tax investigators in five federal states – including Hesse – moved out on Wednesday morning.
The focus was North Rhine-Westphalia with 20 cities in which there were searches. According to the public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf and the central and contact point for the prosecution of organized crime in North Rhine-Westphalia (ZeOS NRW), two properties in Kassel were searched in Hesse.
“We caught big fish,” said NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) on Wednesday. “We’ll get the other fish too,” said Reul. The preparatory work was done by two police investigative commissions called “Zander” and “Fargo”. They frolic in the murky waters of organized crime.
In addition to NRW and Hesse, there were measures in Berlin, Hamburg and Lower Saxony, reported the NRW interior minister. Two of the main suspects in one of the investigation complexes are members of the clan who are known to the police. According to dpa information, they belong to the Al-Zein clan, a large Turkish-Arab family clan.
The complex is about high-priced leasing cars that are said to have been embezzled, given new license plates and sold abroad. “We understand what the gangs are up to. We understand how clan criminals work. We will not stop ending these machinations,” said Reul.
In addition to the two main suspects, to whom a dominant role is attributed, three other suspects can be attributed to the criminal clan milieu, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Four suspects were arrested at the complex. The procedure is aimed at 17 suspects between the ages of 30 and 38. The accused are said to have leased or rented at least eight expensive cars from the brands Audi, Porsche and Mercedes and then resold them on their own account. One of them is also accused of extortion in connection with illegal gambling.
The second complex is about subsidy fraud: front companies were founded in order to swindle state corona aid with them, said Reul. The subsidy fraud case is aimed at 40 suspects, four of whom have also been arrested. The suspected damage is seven million euros, said the Düsseldorf public prosecutor. The funds were mainly transferred to Turkish accounts. According to the public prosecutor’s office, there is no clan connection in this complex.
According to the investigators, a total of 57 suspects are being investigated. All 55 search warrants and 8 arrest warrants were executed, Reul said. Two firearms were also seized.
The investigators justified the fact that the two very different procedures were struck at the same time with cross-connections between the suspects. It was feared that the investigations in the other complex would be jeopardized if both procedures were not searched at the same time, it said.
