For months, experts have been warning that the “Mocro Mafia” is spreading to Germany: Now that is exactly what is happening in North Rhine-Westphalia. The trail also leads to Sweden.
Cologne – In the Netherlands, the evil has long been part of pop culture: everyone there knows the TV series “Mocro Maffia”. The crime series has a bitterly serious background. The real “Mocro Mafia” is notorious for its brutality. Many of its members have Albanian, but also Moroccan roots, hence the casual slang name. Rival gangs are waging a real war in the Netherlands, and they are also responsible for murders. It is always about drugs, and the trail leads to Sweden, where gangs have turned entire districts into no-go areas. Now the violence is spilling over into Germany.
“Mocro-Mafia” from the Netherlands: Bomb attacks and kidnappings in Cologne
In recent months, bomb attacks have caused a stir in and around Cologne. The police see connections to Dutch drug gangs. Most recently, there was an explosion in a café in the Cologne district of Pesch, which left two people slightly injured. It is still unclear whether there is a connection to the Dutch criminals this time too.
In the Netherlands, the gangs have been carrying out their feuds in public for years. A rapid increase in bomb attacks in the drug scene is causing the police great concern. In the first six months of last year alone, there were over 300 attacks on houses. Security sources say it is a miracle that no one has died yet.
Although the drug gangs do not shy away from murder. In July 2021, Dutch crime reporter Peter de Vries was gunned down in the middle of downtown Amsterdam. The murder is said to be related to a trial against the alleged drug lord Ridouan Taghi; de Vries was an advisor to the key witness.
Kidnapping and torture are also among the methods used by the gangs. In July 2023, Dutch gangsters detained a couple who were said to have belonged to a rival group with a Lebanese background. Apparently, it was about missing drugs that the Dutch wanted back. They tortured the man in front of his partner. And in 2020, investigators discovered a converted dentist’s chair with buckles for securing him, as well as torture tools such as pliers and clamps, in a container in Rotterdam.
Rotterdam is the hub for the “Mocro Mafia”
The city is the hub for the machinations of the Mocro Mafia. Tons of drugs from South America regularly arrive in the huge and confusing port of Rotterdam. The Netherlands is considered a hub for the trade in marijuana, crack and cocaine. According to the EU Monitoring Centre for Drugs (EMCDDA), the country is one of the most important import points for cocaine into Europe, along with Spain and Belgium. The margin for cocaine is particularly high. According to experts, a kilogram costs around 2,000 euros in Latin America – the resale value in Europe is 30,000 euros and more.
Sweden is high on the list of countries where the drugs are sent. Powerful drug clans have established themselves there and are bringing good business to suppliers and producers. Clans with Lebanese-Kurdish roots, who came to Sweden in the 1980s, and Somali gangs dominate the scene in the Scandinavian country. Rival gangs engage in open street shootouts, and some suburbs of Stockholm are considered downright no-go areas.
This is the result of decades of development, said Tobias Etzold a few months ago in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIAThe Scandinavia expert conducts research at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (Nupi) in Oslo. “Sweden has had a different migration policy compared to the other Nordic countries. For a long time, there was a very open welcoming culture.” Immigration was very little controlled for years – many people who came as refugees and had few prospects were left to fend for themselves.
Cannabis legalization opens new market for Dutch drug gangs
According to experts, it is no coincidence that the Dutch gangs are now also active in Germany. This is because there is a new market for the gangsters: the cannabis business. The annual demand for cannabis is around 400 tons. The legal market is far from established and can only partially cover these amounts. Oliver Huth, NRW head of the Association of German Criminal Police Officers (BDK), warned months ago: “The illegal market can now spread.”
In the Netherlands, the drug policy established in the 1980s is now seen as a cause of today’s gang problems. Drugs may be possessed there, but not produced commercially – a lucrative business area for criminals. The security authorities now want to dry up the scene step by step. “This problem cannot be solved in a week,” said Dutch prosecutor Peter Huttenhuis some time ago at a congress on Combating clan crime in Dusseldorf.
During investigations into an illegal cannabis plantation, investigators discovered fake identity papers: Many actors in the Netherlands pretend to be Greeks or Italians in order to easily obtain residence permits from the immigration authorities. After discovering the false documents, the police were able to take further steps against the drug cartel. A domino tactic comparable to the “policy of 1000 pinpricks” that the NRW police use against criminal clans.
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