Police and tax investigators take stock after a major raid against the Hells Angels and money laundering network

The day after the major raid against a money laundering network and rockers from the “Hells Angels”, police and tax investigators are taking stock of the operation in Duisburg today. During the searches on Wednesday in five federal states - with a focus on Duisburg - as well as Belgium, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, 14 people were arrested with arrest warrants and around 48.6 million euros were to be confiscated.

Did city employees help?

NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) and Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach (Greens) have announced themselves at the press conference, which will also address suspicions from the Duisburg public prosecutor's office: The authority sees signs that a police officer and two city employees from Duisburg may have passed on information obtained on the job to third parties - i.e. may have helped the criminals.

Reul had praised the raid with more than 1,000 emergency services and 71 suspects as an “effective blow against organized crime”. High-ranking members of the “Hells Angels” apparently worked with a money laundering network that operates across Germany and Europe. This is about “a network of companies and real estate that makes dirty money look clean,” said the minister.

How was the dirty money laundered?

How exactly this money laundering of illegal inflows from drug trafficking, protection rackets or the red light district worked will also be the focus of the press conference.

NRW experts on combating this form of crime are in Duisburg: Representatives of the state office to combat financial crime (LBF), which was created in 2025 and brings together tax investigators from all tax offices in the state, are also taking part.

The “Hells Angels” are the largest rocker club in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to figures from the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) from the spring, there were 29 so-called charters (i.e. local branches) with a total of 469 members.