The number of investigations into people-smuggling rose significantly in 2023. This is according to the latest annual report on organized crime, published by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). This came a day after raids on suspected smugglers in eastern Germany.

Investigators found that smuggling rings often use small trucks to transport as many people as possible over long distances. "Which can mean that they die in transit. We've seen that too," said BKA President Holger Münch at the presentation of the latest figures in Berlin on Thursday.

More border controls in Europe

Border controls are putting more pressure on smuggling rings, added Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who is responsible for security in Germany. "We have a very good international network of partners working together." As an example, she cited Serbia.

This is how Faeser accounts for the slight decline in documented people smuggling crimes in the first eight months of 2024. How accurate this picture is, however, will only become clear once the results for the whole year become available.

BKA chief Münch cited the international connections of smuggling networks and the way they divide up tasks as the biggest challenges for security authorities: "Basically, they specialize. This means that some people might focus on forging documents, others on a specific part of the travel route," he said, adding that this makes it extremely difficult to investigate smuggling across the entire travel route and the people behind it.

Suspects from European and Asian countries

It is primarily the German Federal Police, which is responsible for border security, and is stepping up action against people-smuggling.

According to the BKA Organized Crime Situation Report, the majority of suspects involved in people-smuggling in 2023 were German citizens.

A look at all offenses — from drug smuggling to money laundering or arms trafficking and cybercrime — paints a different picture: 58% of offenders here did not have a German passport.

Compared to 2022, this is a relative increase in the number of foreign nationals among suspected perpetrators of around eight percent. According to the BKA, this is mainly due to the fact that one single cybercrime case with more than 250 Serbian suspects. 

The number of suspects of unknown nationality even rose 29% to 695 suspects. The BKA has a plausible explanation for this high number: the identification of suspects is often especially difficult in the virtual world of cybercrime.

"The fight against highly professional criminal organizations is like David against Goliath,"  Alexander Poitz, deputy chairman of the police union told news agency dpa. Ploitz deplored far-reaching data protection measures and called for more powers to fight crime on the internet, such as the ability to access encrypted chats or store IP addresses. 

Damage amount doubles

Just how lucrative organized crime, 70% of which is cross-border, is illustrated by the total losses calculated for 2023: €2.7 billion ($3 bio), twice the amount recorded for 2022.

BKA President Holger Münch and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stressed that the large number of OC proceedings with links to other European countries in particular shows one thing above all: how important global cooperation is in the fight against organized crime.

This article was originally written in German.

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