The growing threat of organized crime in Germany

It is a worrying development: the threat from organized crime in Germany is growing; The diffuse feeling of many citizens that criminal threats are emerging or increasing in every corner is not misleading. According to the organized crime situation report, the number of investigations against criminal organizations has grown by 5.6 percent, and the number of suspects is at around 8,000, its highest level in five years. The criminal potential of organized gangs is dynamic, they are increasingly internationally networked, are becoming more and more brutal and are taking advantage of all the opportunities that the many technical innovations offer them.

It is therefore all the more important to keep pace with these developments and to equip investigators with the necessary tools and skills. Above all, regulated access options to encrypted chats and darknet platforms should be mentioned here, as well as moderate data storage that neither falls foul of data protection requirements nor gives innocent citizens the feeling that they are actually being “transparent”.

The bill to store IP addresses for three months could do just that. It is expected to be passed in the fall, but civil rights organizations and telecommunications providers have already announced legal action against it.

But what is also important is the resilience of society. Anyone who treats themselves to a nose of cocaine creates exactly the demand that is leading to the current cocaine glut in Germany. And it is contributing to an erosion that is also evident everywhere: that of social responsibility. Anyone who has no idea where their children are, at least roughly, runs the risk of them being hired as drug mules. Anyone who uses sexual services may be promoting human trafficking.

However, the actions of individual people do not only remain personal: the number of investigations into suspected influence peddling and insider actions has also increased in politics and administration, in the judiciary, in business and in the media.