Berlin crime gangs of Arab origin have long earned infamy with violence and brazen robberies but now, police warn, they have targeted a new generation of refugees for recruitment.
Police arrested dozens of people in Europe, including Germany, and South America in a "decisive hit" against Italy's notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia group, officials said Wednesday.
A large-scale operation on Wednesday involving over 700 police officers including special forces is still underway. Dozens of flats and shops in North Rhine-Westphalia in areas with a heavy Hells Angels presence have been searched.
Ten years after one of the bloodiest mafia shoot-outs in Germany, Italian and German politicians and researchers gathered in Berlin to discuss how to combat such criminal groups that still have a solid presence in the Bundesrepublik.
Police in Cologne performed a raid on the clubhouse of the Hells Angels biker gang, using a specially modified armoured vehicle, and uncovered a stash of weapons and money.