Berlin special commissions arrest dozens of suspects
Following a marked increase in firearm offences in the capital, the judicial authorities have responded with specialised investigative teams. More than two dozen defendants are already in pre-trial detention.
Berlin special commissions arrest dozens of suspects
The capital has recently experienced a marked increase in offences involving firearms. In response, the state prosecutor's office and the state criminal investigation office each established their own specialist teams. The results are showing an effect: 29 people have now been detained.
The judicial authority set up a new investigative unit at the end of February. It works closely with a special unit of the LKA (state criminal investigation office) that was already established in autumn 2025. Both units focus on organised crime and the illegal trafficking of weapons.
According to a spokesman for the authorities, 126 proceedings are currently underway. In eight of these, charges have already been brought. Most of the defendants are in pre-trial detention.
The background to the intensified activities is a series of attacks on business owners of Turkish-Kurdish background. Unidentified assailants have repeatedly fired shots at their establishments. Investigators suspect perpetrators from the same cultural environment who are associated with organised crime.
A trial is currently underway at the city's regional court against four young adults aged 21 to 26 years. They are accused of serious extortionate robbery, dangerous assault and threats. The prosecution sees a pattern in the acts of protection money extortion and deliberate intimidation through armed violence.
The justice senator responsible assessed the special commissions' results so far positively. Intimidation as a business model should have no future in the city. The visible acts of violence were only the tip of the iceberg of criminal structures. It was necessary not only to hold individuals accountable but to sustainably dismantle entire networks.
Last week, officers arrested a 38-year-old man in Schöneberg. He is alleged to have fired shots at two brothers in Kreuzberg in March. At the end of May, four further suspects were arrested following shootings in the Graefekiez neighbourhood.
A particularly large-scale operation took place in mid-May, in which nearly 600 police officers were involved. Nine men aged between 23 and 63 were arrested. They are alleged to have belonged to a criminal association. During the raids, officers seized drugs, cash, a firearm, firearm parts, alarm pistols, two vehicles, and data storage devices and mobile phones.
Police recorded 1,119 cases in the past year in which firearms were used to threaten or shoot. Just over half of these involved actual shots fired. Compared to the previous year, the number of such offences increased by more than two-thirds.
Source: Der Spiegel