38 objects searched: Federal Police succeeds against smugglers – arrests

The federal police have succeeded in a blow to a smuggling group. Around 750 civil servants searched 38 objects in nine federal states, as the responsible public prosecutor’s office Flensburg and the federal police said. The objects were apartments and business premises in Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Berlin, Hamburg, Bavaria, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.

Three suspects were therefore arrested. According to the federal police, about half of the searches in Schleswig-Holstein ran, here there were also all arrests, including two in Husum and one in Harrislee. According to the Flensburg public prosecutor’s office, an accused from Husum is already in custody. A spokesman said that he assumed that the other two will also be in custody.

Up to 230,000 euros per smoke

The measures are directed against a smuggling from Schleswig-Holstein. This is said to help several dozen Chinese nationals over a longer period of time to pay for entry and a permanent stay in Germany and have not only gained a temporary source of income. The main suspects would have requested up to 230,000 euros per smoke.

The background to the extensive search measures of the Federal Police Inspection Crime fighting Rostock is therefore an investigation of the Flensburg public prosecutor’s office, which has been conducted since October 2023, on suspicion of the commercial and gang-in interlock of foreigners.

According to security circles, the findings of a document and visa consultant by the federal police in the German Consulate General Shanghai originated.

Schleuser had recruited online

The smugglers had advertised Germany online as part of the accelerated skilled worker procedure. The aim was to recruit Chinese clients in order to obtain a German settlement permit for them.

As a specialist in a German company with permanent employment contracts, the financially strong Chinese nationals initially received the Blue Map EU and thus an almost unconditional stay of four years in the federal territory. However, an actual employment relationship never existed.

Chinese citizens signed the loan contract

The Chinese nationals signed an immigration service and a loan contract that committed the smuggling to pay a six-digit silent contribution as investors in the company of the accused or to the companies of initiated business partners.

The salary payments always took place in favor of bank accounts, which belonged to the smuggling, but to which the accused had access. According to security circles, around 100 people – supposed workers and their relatives – are said to have been smuggled to Germany. According to reports, other false documents were also presented, for example in relation to allegedly existing language skills.

100 people are said to have been locked to Germany

The two accused Husum, a 52-year-old woman and a 67-year-old man, organized all further steps until the German settlement permit was received after the Chinese investors’ recruitment.

The 44-year-old main suspect from Harrislee was responsible for management, financial planning, investment, accounting and bookkeeping in the company. So the appearance of employment could be preserved, it said. The officials were able to ensure extensive analog and digital evidence as well as larger amounts of cash in the raid. In addition, asset arrest of more than five million euros could be carried out.

In North Rhine-Westphalia there have been an investigation into a gang of smuggling for a long time. It is said to have procured wealthy Chinese and rich people from Oman’s residence permits for Germany. The investigators suspect that Schleuser could have bribed officials in authorities in order to receive the desired residence permit for their foreign clients against six -digit amounts. So far, nothing indicates any participation of officials in the smuggings with which the new investigation deals.