Berlin raid on suspected money-laundering ring: gold, Lamborghini, 189 accounts frozen
Police and tax investigators searched 16 properties in Berlin and Brandenburg. Four suspects are in custody and about two million euros have been secured.
Symbolic image · Photo: Lear 21 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Investigators in Berlin and Brandenburg executed four arrest warrants in an operation against a suspected criminal organisation. About 80 police and tax investigators searched 16 homes and business premises on Wednesday, including in the districts of Tempelhof-Schoeneberg, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Steglitz-Zehlendorf, prosecutors and police said on Thursday. Three men aged 31, 31 and 43 and a 32-year-old woman were arrested.
The suspects are alleged to have run a network of companies and bank accounts since 2024, using straw men mainly from Portugal and false identities. Money was allegedly moved through multi-stage chains of transfers to hide its beneficial owners. The allegations include money laundering and breaches of payment services supervision law. A total of 189 accounts were frozen and about two million euros secured.
Authorities said they seized more than 330,000 euros in cash, gold bars worth about 639,000 euros, a six-carat diamond, luxury watches, a Lamborghini and a firearm with ammunition. A judge at Tiergarten district court ordered the suspects held in custody. The investigation into the money flows and possible further suspects is continuing; the suspects are presumed innocent.