Cologne bombing follows summer of drug mafia-related violence

The Dutch criminal gang Mocro Mafia is again under suspicion after a bomb attack in the center of Cologne on Monday morning.

The Mocro Mafia, a criminal gang of Moroccans based in the Netherlands, is expanding its territory into Germany and causing tensions with other drug gangs.

Surveillance footage posted on social media showed a person dressed in a black and white jacket with the hood over his face walking towards the entrance of the “Vanity Club Cologne”. After placing an unknown object on the ground, he searched his pockets, pulled out a fire bomb, lit it and threw it on the object. The perpetrator then fled the scene.

The explosion destroyed the entrance to the nightclub. At least one person, a club employee, was slightly injured.

The injured worker was most likely the same person seen in the footage, stepping out from behind a number of large dumpsters outside the entrance to the nightclub. He had walked toward the burning object before it exploded, but appeared to be largely shielded by one of the dumpsters.

According to Junge Freiheit, such attacks are on the rise in North Rhine-Westphalia, with several bombings and murders in cafes, residential buildings and business premises in the recent past. Police say the attacks are linked to the drug mafia in the area.

Drug violence has become a growing problem in Germany. In June, an African man detonated an explosive device outside a restaurant in the city of Solingen, hospitalizing four people, including a 7-year-old girl. Two years earlier, the Arab restaurant had been robbed in connection with a gang crime.

In July, the German Special Unit (SEK) freed a kidnapped couple who had been tortured from a villa in Cologne.

The couple were members of the El-Zein clan, a prominent Lebanese mafia organization based mainly in Germany. They are suspected of stealing cocaine and cannabis during a deal between their clan and the Mocro mafia.

In the following month, several bomb attacks and hostage-takings took place on residential buildings in the Cologne district of Zündorf and other cities.