The 'Ndrangheta is at home in Germany. The ''Erfurt Group'' has been active for over 25 years
December 14, 2023
The connections with the "Eureka" operation carried out by the DDA of Reggio Calabria

The "Erfurt Group", a cell of the 'Ndrangheta active in the capital of Thuringia, as well as in Saxony "for more than 25 years", is said to be responsible for numerous cases of money laundering. This is what the radio and television broadcaster "Mdr" reports, adding that for years the German authorities have been monitoring a building "in the north of Erfurt".
It is suspected, in fact, that it is a "one of the most important strategic properties" of the exponents of Calabrian organized crime in the city. The building - as Agenzia Nova reported - was purchased "in the mid-nineties". by Italian entrepreneurs and restaurateurs, presumably belonging to the "Erfurt Group", to set up apartments. The tenants were "mostly Italian" who worked in one of the many Italian restaurants in the city and came "mostly from Calabria", in particular from San Luca, one of the strongholds of the 'Ndrangheta in the region. The German authorities have ascertained that "234 Italian citizens" have registered at the property's address over the years. Some lived in the building "for years", others "for a few months", working in restaurants believed to belong to Calabrian organized crime in Leipzig, Dresden and Munich. In part, these tenants were reported to San Luca. Now, an investigation conducted by "Mdr" with the newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reveals that, in 2019, the Gbr company sold the building in the north of Erfurt and a warehouse to a Bavarian real estate group for 2.84 million euros. The Gbr belongs to three Italian entrepreneurs, two of whom are suspected of being affiliated with the 'Ndrangheta, while the other would have been the accountant of the "Erfurt Group".

The links with one of those arrested in the "Eureka" operation
This Gbr associate is related to one of those arrested during the "Eureka" operation, carried out last May against crime organized in Calabria in various European countries with the coordination of the Reggio Calabria prosecutor's office. In particular, it would be Domenico Giorgi who, arrested in Portugal on charges of money laundering, had resided in Erfurt for years. With other exponents of Calabrian organized crime in the city, Giorgi appears in the "Fido" investigation, conducted by the Gera prosecutor's office on the investments of the 'Ndrangheta in Germany until it was interrupted in 2006. To shed light on this stop, the Thuringian parliament established a commission of inquiry in order to clarify whether at the origin of the decision there were links between politics, the judiciary and the police forces of the Land with the 'Ndrangheta.
The 'Eureka' operation, carried out on 3 May 2023 at the request of the DDA, tells not only of the links between "our" 'Ndrangheta and the drug traffickers of Central and South America with agreements that have led Calabrian organized crime to take on a primary role in the field of trafficking towards Europe, but also in the huge financial flows that are produced and moved by the 'Ndrangheta in the world.