Organized crime clans are laundering money customs investigators auditors and federal and state crime authorities accompanied by hundreds of police officers are searching the bars. it s the biggest operation of its kind in berlin. you know a cone district mayor has come along and he wants to know how the mission is going . this time the improprieties are minor offenses tobacco without tax stamps and violations of trading in child protection laws but the district mayor says he won t turn a blind eye. or does instead we can publish everything with these checks from you know to major offenses we are implementing a zero tolerance strategy here. large scale raids like this are part of a new campaign against organized arab crime clans suspected of committing major offenses including the break end of a luxury department store in broad daylight or the theft of
Strongholds in the rural area hanover braman and here in berlin for decades with little intervention from the police the clans were able to build their own criminal networks but now politicians are looking at whether integration policy has had a hand in helping these groups prosper many of the kurdish arabic families that came to germany in the one nine hundred seventy s. and eighty s weren t allowed to work they received only modest social welfare payments and topped up their income with criminal activities such as robbery drug dealing and racketeering now though police are cracking down carrying out frequent raids in an attempt to disrupt the scene they call it the strategy of one thousand pricks a reporter mark a route that examines its potential for success. a large scale raid in berlin s my cone district investigators are mainly targeting shisha bars where they suspect