After the large-scale raid on a family clan from Düren, the authorities investigate 32 suspects. In addition to drug and human trafficking, the Turkish-born clan is also accused of tax evasion, social fraud and embezzlement of wages,
the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia, customs and tax investigation together with the public prosecutor's office in Aachen said on Wednesday. Seven men were arrested in Tuesday's raid, and five were already under arrest warrants.
Four of the detainees belonged to the clan. A 47-year-old main suspect is said to have run demolition companies through straw men and has thus generated seven-figure sales in the past six years alone. The workers were recruited in Eastern Europe,
some of them received less than five euros an hourly wage. The majority of employees were not registered for social security. At the same time, the 47-year-old and some of his family members had for years illegally received social assistance in a "higher five-figure order".
The Eastern European workers were housed for usury rents in real estate that the gang - also through straw men - had acquired from their illegal income, the message said. In addition, the suspicion of a "lively drug trade with a focus on the Düren city area" has been confirmed.
During the raid, special forces and over a hundred other officials searched 48 apartments and restaurants in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse. The LKA NRW had previously carried out a long, concealed investigation. Extensive evidence has been confiscated -
including computers and cell phones, five-figure cash, a stun gun, and written records. Four properties with a total value of around EUR 480,000 and three vehicles were confiscated.
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