The influence of Syrian criminal clans in the German state of Saxony has increased

Eleven years after the influx of Syrian migrants in 2015, Syrian crime clans have taken root in eastern Germany, some of which commit serious crimes and fraudulently exploit the social assistance system. In Saxony alone, the number of people belonging to Syrian clans is estimated at up to a thousand people, most of whom are active in the Leipzig region. This environment mainly revolves around four large families, according to the Regional Office of the Criminal Police in Saxony, in a statement to the website of the German magazine Focus (August 17, 2026).

According to the same source, these clans committed crimes of various kinds, “including violent crimes, drug trafficking, money laundering, crimes related to tax evasion, people smuggling crimes, forgery crimes, traffic violations, illegal financial transactions, as well as various forms of fraud.” This also includes obtaining social benefits through fraudulent means, and the police have previously seized firearms.

The prominence of the Syrian clans is partly due to the fact that the Syrians are the largest foreign community in Saxony after the Ukrainians. At the end of 2025, about 36,300 people from Syria lived in the state.

Although Saxony is not a clan stronghold of the same size as the states of Berlin, Bremen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, developments, particularly in Leipzig, with a population of about 620,000, are worrying. Police estimates indicate that there are about a thousand people among the Syrian tribes in the region, including about 130 who are known to the police due to crimes, while the rest participate in supporting the four tribal families. Many members of these clans engage in various commercial activities, and sometimes use some of them as fronts to carry out secret criminal activities. Examples include selling drugs through night shops or bars, where each individual builds his own business model and enlists the help of members of his family or people close to the clan.

To illustrate the structure and composition of these families, the Criminal Police Office in Saxony referred to a vivid example that reveals the scale of the problem. The police in the Leipzig region were able to classify a large Syrian family of more than 60 people as part of the phenomenon of clan crimes. It includes a man who is married, according to Islamic law, to at least three women, and among whom he has at least 32 children, some of whom have become adults, in addition to at least 25 grandchildren who are known to the authorities in Saxony. The office said that about two-thirds of the members of this family had committed crimes, some of them more than once, and that the number of recorded crimes exceeded 100. Some of its members were also involved in multiple serious crimes, including assaults and drug crimes.

According to the "Focus" website, Saxony State Criminal Office investigator, Raiko Mertens, believes that these illegal activities generally appear among criminal clans in the Leipzig region. He says that its members finance their lavish livings from illegal activities, and do not recognize the German judiciary, but rather rely on their own “judges of the peace” to resolve disputes internally. Mertens describes these groups as very cohesive and difficult for the police to dismantle, stressing that no member of the clan testifies against his family. This is why some investigations and trials fail.

However, the investigator believes that the state is not helpless. According to his opinion, the situation must be clearly analyzed and the problems must be confronted firmly at all levels, through regular and intensive inspection of places associated with these circles, such as barber shops, shisha cafes and stores, confiscating criminal assets, firmly enforcing the law, and most importantly achieving close cooperation between the various authorities, according to the website of the German Focus magazine.

The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) defines a clan as an “informal social organization” based on its members’ belief in common descent, with a hierarchical structure, a strong sense of belonging, and a shared system of rules and values.