Dutch ‘Mocro-mafia’ rings alarm bells in Germany – DW – 20-09-2024

Fears grew of possible mafia wars between Dutch and German criminal networks after police linked recent explosions in Cologne to organized crime groups. A firebomb recently exploded in a fashion store on a popular shopping street on Wednesday morning (September 18, 2024). “There are clearly still outstanding scores in the environment that still need to be settled,” Cologne’s criminal investigation chief Michael Esser said at a news conference.

The explosion came after a drug deal gone wrong in early August resulted in the kidnapping and torture of a man and woman in West Germany.

The two individuals, who were apparently part of a German organized crime group, were freed by a police operation in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. The operation resulted in four arrests and raids on six other premises in the city, during which two more men were arrested.

In the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, seven bomb attacks also took place in three weeks, in which attempts were made to steal money from ATMs.

All of these crimes are said to have been carried out by the so-called “Mocro-mafia” — a collective term adopted by the media in both the Netherlands and Germany for several organized crime groups that originally emerged from the Dutch Moroccan community in the 1990s. The Dutch mafia is also just one of many: Europol has counted 821 organized crime networks across Europe, with more than 25,000 members.

Not just Moroccan, and not just Dutch

Although the term has become popular, not least through the title of a successful Dutch television series (currently in its sixth season and also airing in Germany), most criminologists and police officers agree that the Mocro Mafia no longer has a single ethnic identity.

“The so-called Mocro mafia started in the 1990s with importing cannabis into the Netherlands and later expanded its activities to include the import of cocaine,” Dirk Peglow, head of the German Association of Criminal Investigators, told DW. “So we are dealing with a group whose structures have existed for decades.”

However, they are considerably more violent than the organized crime groups in Germany. Gruesome stories have circulated in the media, including tales of torture chambers, severed heads left outside bars, and even alleged plans to kidnap the 18-year-old Dutch Crown Princess Amalia. Leading Dutch criminologist Cyrille Fijnaut estimates that between 10 and 20 people are murdered by the Mocro Mafia each year.

“In all these groups, the violence is very high,” said Mahmoud Jaraba, a crime researcher at the FAU Research Centre Islam and Law in Europe. “But in this group, the willingness to commit violence is greater.” Groups in Germany, he pointed out, had not yet taken the step of blowing up ATMs.

But in terms of the structures and businesses they are involved in, the groups are similar. “The Arab ‘clans’ in Germany are not that different: The main players come from a certain family, but they are not closed groups,” Jaraba told DW. “Without their networks inside and outside Germany and the Netherlands, they would not survive.”

High profile assassinations are designed to silence witnesses and opponents

The unrestrained nature of the Mocro mafia became notorious in the Netherlands in 2021 with the murder of Peter R. de Vries, a prominent Dutch journalist who had reported extensively on organized crime in the country and was shot in the head in Amsterdam after appearing on a television talk show.

That murder was one of three linked to the six-year Marengo trial, in which several suspects, including gang leader Ridouan Taghi, were accused of multiple murders and attempted murder. In February of this year, all 17 suspects were given lengthy prison sentences, including life sentences for Taghi and three others.

In addition to de Vries, the brother of crown witness Nabil B. and a public prosecutor were also murdered. In June, six men were also convicted by a Dutch court for the murder of de Vries.

Mocro-mafia ‘already active in Germany’

Despite these legal successes, the criminal networks appear to be thriving and spreading to Germany. “We have seen in North Rhine-Westphalia that the group is already active in Germany and that they are showing brutality in their criminal activities, including injuring or even killing innocent bystanders,” Peglow said.

While the Cologne kidnapping showed that feuds could break out between the groups, the organizations generally appear to work closely together, with the German groups importing cocaine and heroin from their Dutch counterparts. “The relationships and cooperation between the various criminal groups between Germany and the Netherlands have remained intact to this day,” Jaraba said.

Investigators don’t know exactly when the Mocro mafia entered Germany, nor what crimes were committed in Germany on behalf of the Dutch group. However, police in both Germany and the Netherlands have said in recent years that they have been able to gather much more information about international organized crime networks, thanks to analysis of chat messaging apps.

Still, Peglow warned that the German government must do more to support the police in their efforts to prevent Dutch organized crime from spreading to Germany. “In Germany, we cannot wait until similar structures are set up as in the Netherlands,” he said. “We must work very closely with the Dutch police here and prevent incidents like the one that recently occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia from becoming normal here.”

But without more resources, Jaraba said, police had little chance against such structures. “We have extremely limited possibilities to combat this phenomenon, because in most cases they come from the Netherlands and have their escape routes, and people who work with them,” he said.

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

This article was updated on September 20, 2024, following the explosions linked to organized crime in Cologne in mid-September.

While you’re here: Every Tuesday, DW editors summarize what’s happening in German politics and society. You can sign up for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing here.