Increased tensions are escalating violence between the El-Zein and Mocro Mafia organized crime groups in Germany and the Netherlands.
Police officers from the German Special Task Force (SEK) freed a kidnapped couple from a villa in Cologne on Friday, who were believed to be linked to an ongoing drug gang feud.
A video obtained by the Bild newspaper showed the victims being severely abused and tortured. National media has reported the couple were members of the El-Zein clan, a prominent Lebanese mafia organization primarily based in Germany.
The SEK was able to arrest four armed suspected kidnappers.
The judiciary suspects a conflict between various organized crime groups. It is alleged that drugs went missing during a cocaine and cannabis deal between the El-Zein clan from North Rhine-Westphalia and the Dutch “Mocro Mafia”. According to Bild, the illegal goods are said to have a total value of around €9 million. The “Mocro Mafia” is a criminal gang of Moroccans based in the Netherlands, which is expanding its territory into Germany and causing tensions.
Recently, investigators in North Rhine-Westphalia have become increasingly aware of conflicts between criminal gangs. A week and a half ago, there were three bomb attacks on houses in Cologne-Mülheim and Buchheim over two nights. Windows and entrance areas were damaged, but no one was injured.
The following day, an explosive device made with black powder detonated outside a front door in Engelskirchen, followed two days later by one in Duisburg. Due to the similarity of the cases, investigators quickly suspected a connection.
In the meantime, suspicions have been confirmed that the attack in Solingen at the end of June was also linked to the drug war. There, a man from Eritrea had detonated an explosive device in front of the same house in which the now-freed El-Zein members were living. Several people were injured in the attack. The perpetrator died in the failed detonation.
??‼️ An African man has died in Germany after detonating an explosive device intended to blow up an Arab-owned restaurant too early.
The attack rocked Konrad-Adenauer-Straße in Solingen, NWR, on Tuesday afternoon and left four other people injured from the blast, including… pic.twitter.com/MC48xv0X6a
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) June 26, 2024
According to police estimates, the so-called “Mocro Mafia” controls around a third of the entire European cocaine trade from the Netherlands. The contract killing of the well-known Dutch crime reporter Peter de Vries is also attributed to the gang.
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