Overview
- Police searched more than 20 homes and business sites across Hessen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, and near Warsaw in a coordinated action requested by the European Public Prosecutor's Office.
- Six men and three women are under investigation on suspicion of laundering money and taking part in a criminal group that investigators say routed millions in cash through an international company network.
- Officers seized dozens of data devices and records plus cash, three high-end cars, six luxury watches, and drugs that included about 50 kilograms of cannabis, with seizures valued at more than €1.2 million.
- The inquiry grew out of an EPPO and Munich tax case on suspected VAT and import duty fraud, then shifted to the Hessian LKA's joint police-and-customs unit that specializes in tracking illicit funds.
- In a separate Kassel and Fuldatal action, federal police arrested four suspects over alleged smuggling and prostitution facilitation and seized assets worth €1,046,360, while 35 people without legal status were briefly detained.