It was a highly dangerous situation: clan members tried to prevent the deportation of another member of the clan. The revelation by FOCUS online caused a great stir among security officials. The police in the capital have apparently already reacted to the incident
Lothar Ebert speaks from experience. The long-time head of the Berlin Special Operations Command (SEK) has organized the deportation of criminal asylum seekers around 100 times. Ebert’s team, armed and well-trained, almost never encountered resistance – it mostly just ended in scuffles. Serious resistance was rigorously broken.
When Ebert read the report on FOCUS online yesterday morning about a Berlin clan that wanted to prevent the deportation of a leader by blocking two intersections and carrying out a chase to Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, the SEK veteran immediately thought of a brutal attack in northern France. There, 100 kilometers northwest of Paris, members of a Moroccan clan had attacked a prisoner transport two weeks ago, shooting two judicial officers and seriously injuring three others. The perpetrators freed an 18-year-old clan member from the transporter and fled.
Ebert fears that in the future, similar armed attacks on the police could occur when criminals from the Berlin clan milieu are deported by a judge. According to information from FOCUS online, after the road blockade in the south of Neukölln a good two months ago, the SEK was commissioned to handle the transport of dangerous, rejected asylum seekers to the airport.
During these operations, jammers were even used to prevent any communication between the criminal and his accomplices. A single cell phone call from the convicted clan leader to his people weeks ago led to streets and intersections being blocked with large pick-up trucks and SUVs.
A special investigator from the Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA), who deals with organized crime in the German capital, told FOCUS online: “The clans do not recognize state authorities such as the police at all. They have created their own power structure with their own rules and laws. If, as in the case in question, a clan leader calls for assistance, everyone will follow this order. Even if he himself is threatened with arrest or injury. Otherwise he is a coward, he loses face and, in the worst case, has to fear for his life and that of his family.”
Heiko Teggatz, deputy federal chairman of the German Police Union, called the road blockade in Neukölln an “extreme incident”. He demands that “the police and the judiciary send strong signals to the clans.” Criminal families believe “that they are operating in a lawless area,” Teggatz said in an interview. The apparent attempt to free a clan leader is typical of the attitude of some criminal families.
“There has always been a red line between the police and the clans,” says former SEK chief Lothar Ebert. “But violence is increasing, everywhere. My police colleagues have to be very careful!”