German police say that Mocro Mafia, a Dutch criminal mob with origins among the Moroccan immigrant community, is making dangerous headways into Germany, according to a report by the Polish-language Deutsche Welle website.
Fears over potential gangland warfare between Moroccan-Dutch and German mobs are rising in Germany after a drug deal gone wrong in early July resulted in a man and a woman being kidnapped in Cologne and subsequently tortured.
The two individuals allegedly belonging to a German organized crime organization have been freed and six men detained as a result of an operation conducted by the police in the western German state of North Rhein-Westphalia
In just three weeks, North Rhein-Westphalia saw seven explosions connected to attempts to rob cash from ATMs.
All these were perpetrated by the so-called ‘Mocro Mafia,’ an umbrella term used in the Netherlands and Germany to refer to several criminal gangs originating in the Netherlands’ Moroccan community in the 1990s.
Most criminologists and police officers agree that the Mocro Mafia can no longer be ethnically identified exclusively with the Moroccan migrant community.
“The so-called Mocro Mafia began importing Cannabis indica [marijuana] into the Netherlands in the 1990s, and later expanded their operations to include the importation of cocaine,” Dirk Peglow, the head of the Federation of German Detectives (BDK) told the Deutsche Welle news outlet.
“So we are dealing with a group whose structure has been in existence for decades,” he said.
Mocro Mafia mobsters appear to be much more prone to violence than German organized crime organizations, with grim media reports about torture chambers, severed heads left in front of bars, and even an alleged plan to kidnap one of the House of Orange’s royal princesses.
Cyrille Fijnaut, a well-known Dutch criminologist, assessed the number of murders perpetrated by the Mocro Mafia at between 10 and 20 annually.
“All these groups are prone to extreme violence but in this group the readiness to perpetrate violent acts is greater,” said Mahmoud Jaraba, a researcher on criminality with the Friedrich-Alexander University’s Erlangen Center for Islam and Law in Europe (FAU EZIRE).
The Mocro Mafia’s lack of restraint in employing violence became widely publicized in the Netherlands in 2021 with the murder of Peter R. de Vries. The well-known investigative journalist widely reporting on organized crime in the country was mortally wounded by a shot to the head in Amsterdam, following his appearance on a television talks show.
The crime shows how the Mocro Mafia has transcended ethnic boundaries.
The two individuals allegedly belonging to a German organized crime organization have been freed and six men detained as a result of an operation conducted by the police in the western German state of North Rhein-Westphalia
In just three weeks, North Rhein-Westphalia saw seven explosions connected to attempts to rob cash from ATMs.
All these were perpetrated by the so-called ‘Mocro Mafia,’ an umbrella term used in the Netherlands and Germany to refer to several criminal gangs originating in the Netherlands’ Moroccan community in the 1990s.
No longer Moroccan and not exclusively Dutch
Most criminologists and police officers agree that the Mocro Mafia can no longer be ethnically identified exclusively with the Moroccan migrant community.
“The so-called Mocro Mafia began importing Cannabis indica [marijuana] into the Netherlands in the 1990s, and later expanded their operations to include the importation of cocaine,” Dirk Peglow, the head of the Federation of German Detectives (BDK) told the Deutsche Welle news outlet.
“So we are dealing with a group whose structure has been in existence for decades,” he said.
Mocro Mafia mobsters appear to be much more prone to violence than German organized crime organizations, with grim media reports about torture chambers, severed heads left in front of bars, and even an alleged plan to kidnap one of the House of Orange’s royal princesses.
Cyrille Fijnaut, a well-known Dutch criminologist, assessed the number of murders perpetrated by the Mocro Mafia at between 10 and 20 annually.
“All these groups are prone to extreme violence but in this group the readiness to perpetrate violent acts is greater,” said Mahmoud Jaraba, a researcher on criminality with the Friedrich-Alexander University’s Erlangen Center for Islam and Law in Europe (FAU EZIRE).
Silencing witnesses and competition
The Mocro Mafia’s lack of restraint in employing violence became widely publicized in the Netherlands in 2021 with the murder of Peter R. de Vries. The well-known investigative journalist widely reporting on organized crime in the country was mortally wounded by a shot to the head in Amsterdam, following his appearance on a television talks show.
The crime shows how the Mocro Mafia has transcended ethnic boundaries.
The Dutch court sentenced the shooter, Dutch rapper Delano ‘Slick’ Geerman, as well as his Polish getaway driver Kamil Egiert, to 28 years in prison for the crime. Two other of their accomplices, both Polish citizens, have been sentenced to 14 and 26 years.
The murder was one of three similar cases put before the court as part of the so-called Marengo trial, named after the codename used by the police for their investigation. In the case, several individuals, including the gang leader Ridouan Taghi, have been charged with multiple homicides and attempted murders.
Other people murdered by the Mocro Mafia include the brother of Nabil B., a former gang member who turned state’s evidence, as well as his lawyer.
In February 2024, all 17 defendants had been sentenced to long-term prison sentences. Taghi and three other individuals received life sentences. In June, six individuals were sentenced for the murder of de Vries.
In spite of the prosecutor’s successes in bringing the criminals to justice, the Mocro Mafia appears not only to be thriving but also spreading across Germany.
“In North Rhine-Westphalia, we have observed the group is active in Germany, and that it displays brutality in its activities, which include causing bodily harm and even the killing of innocent bystanders,” Dirk Peglow of the BDK said.
Although the Cologne kidnapping has shown that the various crews within the mob may be in conflict with one another, most of the time they appear to be in tight cooperation with one another, with the German groups purchasing cocaine and heroin from their Dutch partners in crime.
As Mahmoud Jaraba of the FAU EZIRE said: “The relations and cooperation between the various criminal groups in Germany and the Netherlands are maintained to this day.”
Peglow is trying to warn the German authorities that they need to do more to support law enforcement in their efforts to prevent the spread of Dutch organized crime into Germany.
He said: “We in Germany cannot wait until similar [criminal] structures to the ones in the Netherlands develop. We must tightly collaborate with the Dutch police and prevent the spread of incidents similar to the one that recently took place in North Rhine-Westphalia.”
But, as the head of the BDK said, without additional resources the police have little chance to successfully confront these criminal structures.
“Our capacity to combat these occurrences is very limited because in most of the cases the criminals come from the Netherlands and they have their escape routes and people to assist them,” Peglow said.
The murder was one of three similar cases put before the court as part of the so-called Marengo trial, named after the codename used by the police for their investigation. In the case, several individuals, including the gang leader Ridouan Taghi, have been charged with multiple homicides and attempted murders.
Other people murdered by the Mocro Mafia include the brother of Nabil B., a former gang member who turned state’s evidence, as well as his lawyer.
In February 2024, all 17 defendants had been sentenced to long-term prison sentences. Taghi and three other individuals received life sentences. In June, six individuals were sentenced for the murder of de Vries.
Mocro Mafia enters Germany
In spite of the prosecutor’s successes in bringing the criminals to justice, the Mocro Mafia appears not only to be thriving but also spreading across Germany.
“In North Rhine-Westphalia, we have observed the group is active in Germany, and that it displays brutality in its activities, which include causing bodily harm and even the killing of innocent bystanders,” Dirk Peglow of the BDK said.
Although the Cologne kidnapping has shown that the various crews within the mob may be in conflict with one another, most of the time they appear to be in tight cooperation with one another, with the German groups purchasing cocaine and heroin from their Dutch partners in crime.
As Mahmoud Jaraba of the FAU EZIRE said: “The relations and cooperation between the various criminal groups in Germany and the Netherlands are maintained to this day.”
Peglow is trying to warn the German authorities that they need to do more to support law enforcement in their efforts to prevent the spread of Dutch organized crime into Germany.
He said: “We in Germany cannot wait until similar [criminal] structures to the ones in the Netherlands develop. We must tightly collaborate with the Dutch police and prevent the spread of incidents similar to the one that recently took place in North Rhine-Westphalia.”
But, as the head of the BDK said, without additional resources the police have little chance to successfully confront these criminal structures.
“Our capacity to combat these occurrences is very limited because in most of the cases the criminals come from the Netherlands and they have their escape routes and people to assist them,” Peglow said.
Source: DW via tvp.info
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