Italian Mafia in Germany

The Italian mafia began to establish itself in Germany in the 1970s, initially the Cosa Nostra, followed by the Camorra in the 80s. [23] The Italian guest workers who had lived there since the 1950s served them as “docking stations”. [24]

Germany is the Ndrangheta since 2007 as a "Provincia" with a special control body, Crimine . [24] In a tapped phone call, Ndranhgheta godfather Vincenzo Farao said in 2014 "In Germany we can do anything". [25]

In 2008 the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) prepared a report on 230 clans and 900 people of the Ndrangheta in Germany. [26]

According to the Spiegel, the number of Mafiosi in Germany quadrupled from 2008 to 2017. The security authorities had 136 members in 2008 and 562 in June 2017. The number of unreported cases is probably much higher. [27]

In addition to the big cities, regions like Swabia were also focal points of the Mafia in 2012 . [28]

In 2016, the BKA in Germany counted 543 Italian Mafia members, 308 from the 'Ndrangheta, 123 from the Cosa Nostra, 95 from the Camorra and Stidda, 17 members of the Apulian Mafia. Strongholds are Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse. [29]

In 2018, the Federal Criminal Police Office knew about 570 Mafia members living in Germany, 350 of them from the 'Ndrangheta. With the helpers, the number of people connected to the Mafia was estimated at around 5,000. [30]

In 2021, 770 members of the Italian Mafia were known to the police, 505 from the Ndrangheta, which is mainly represented in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Hesse, 109 from the 30 from the Stidda, 101 from the Camorra and 16 Apulian groups. This was an increase of 220 compared to 2016, due to increased German preliminary proceedings or notifications from Italian investigators. [31] [32]

In the few years we had more and more arrests of Italian mafia members in Germany , they also have strong presence in Switzerland. I have no knowledge of German organized crime , i don't know if they have any significant domestic groups.

The mafia has strongholds all over holland, Germany, Switzerland and parts of France. Obviously Hollander knows this as he’s well versed in it

According to a survey of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk , after the Duisburg massacre of 2007 would have constituted a crimine or control room: a gathering of nine persons of prominent German clans almost all operating in western and southern regions of Germany, and only one in the east in Erfurt . They would meet in Duisburg [16] [24] . The tasks of the chamber would be the same as its peers: to resolve differences between the 'ndrine and to ensure compliance with the rules [16] . The number of places active in the area would reach 20, for a total of 1000 affiliates.

Control Rooms abroad have also been identified in Canada and Australia, but I read several times there is also one in the US (New York?)

There's tons of organized crime in Germany. As far as "domestic" organized crime in Germany goes, it's mostly connected to bikers. Mostly German guys and Turkish guys born in Germany are members of outlaw motorcycle gangs. They're very heavily into operating brothels, security, drugs, etc...

Aside from that Germany is a playground for international organized crime, even though not every organized crime group present in Germany is doing heavy lifting.

Ndrangheta, Camorra, Sicilian mafia, SCU...are all present in Germany, but they mostly use Germany as a money laundering spot. A ton of gelaterias, pizzerias, etc...are Italian OC connected.

In Berlin, Bremen and the Ruhr there's infamous activity by Lebanese clans. There's the well known Mhallami/Mardelli clans in Berlin, Bremen and Essen and you also have Hezbollah-connected Shi'ite clans in Duisburg, Dortmund and Berlin. Always large extended families of which not every family member is a criminal and the heavy criminals are a minority in these families, but the number is disproportionate. They're mostly involved in large-scale theft and drugs and are designated as Germany's number one "foreign" crime problem.

Turkish and Kurdish organized crime continues to operate in Germany due to a huge community from Turkey in the country. A lot of infamous Turkish criminal organizations from the Black Sea region and Kurdish clans from East and Southeast Anatolia have operated and still operate in Hamburg and the Ruhr especially. Of course you also have criminal organizations consisting of German-born Turks that operate in conjunction with organizations based in Turkey.

OC from the Balkans is over there as well. Albanian organized crime is a very heavy all over Germany and you also have Serb/Montenegrin and Bosniak organized crime over there. Serb/Montenegrin OC used to be heavy in Frankfurt and East Germany, but nowadays they just use Germany as a money laundering spot.
In Freiburg there's also a big community of Bosniaks from the Sandžak and organized crime from that community at one time made some noise as well.
Bulgarian OC and Romanian OC have stakes in brothels as well, but those groups just focus solely on prostitution.

OC from Russia and other former Soviet states are all there as well, mostly in East Germany. Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Chechen, Azerbaijani, Ingush, Dagestani and Yezidi groups are all active in Germany. There's quite a bit of Armenian and Georgian OC in Erfurt especially and activity by groups from Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the North Caucasus in Berlin has been noticed as well. Just like the Italian groups, these groups mostly use Germany as a money laundering spot.

Polish and Lithuanian OC is largely involved in car theft rings and contraband cigarettes.

On the border with the Czech Republic there's also quite some Vietnamese OC; they mostly concentrate on counterfeit goods, marihuana and meth production.

Afghan gangs are also involved in heroin in Hamburg, the Ruhr and Stuttgart. They're not as big as the Turkish and Kurdish groups, but they've become noticeable as well. The Afghan community in Germany seems to be different from the Afghan community in for instance Belgium. In Belgium a lot of Afghans are Tajik refugees, but in Germany a large amount of them are Pashtun with family connections in the opium-growing regions of Afghanistan. So there was at one time talk that they were about to become serious competition for the Turkish and Kurdish groups, but that has cooled down a bit.

Another noticeable thing in the Ruhr is that Romani gypsy clans with origins in the former Yugoslavia (especially Bosnia) set up shop there as well. Noteworthy about this is that these clans originally migrated from Bosnia to Rome and seem to have a lot of Italian OC connections. A few years ago a member of a famous Belgium-based crime family was hit by members of one of these gypsy clans, who were supposedly hired by a Camorristi who was entangled in a conflict with said Belgian crime family.

Thanks, Italian diaspora is huge. We are talking about 150 years of Italian emigration, the flow of Italian migrants to other European countries intensified after the Second World War.