577 arrest warrants, 85 million cigarettes seized and 100 tons of shisha tobacco taken out of circulation – this is the result of the Cigarette Investigation Group of the Berlin police and customs, which was founded 25 years ago.
The police and customs investigators began working together in 1999 because the gang fights between Vietnamese groups in the area of ​​illegal cigarette trading in East Berlin were becoming increasingly brutal. Some gangs had used violence to divide up the street trade in contraband cigarettes among themselves, and several murders had been committed.
25 years later, the police state: “The two masterminds of the illegal cigarette trade (…) are now serving long prison sentences. Their distribution structure has largely been dismantled. The associated other crimes have noticeably decreased.”
For the past five years, the investigation team has been focusing primarily on the area surrounding shisha bars. Untaxed water pipe tobacco – often from Eastern Europe or Arab countries – is smuggled in or produced locally.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240906-930-225024/1
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