Berlin police target cafes and late-night shops at Alexanderplatz in major inspection
Dozens of officers, including commercial investigators from the state criminal police, inspected businesses around Berlin's TV tower on Tuesday. No results have been released.
Symbolic image · Photo: Dickelbers / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Berlin police inspected businesses at Alexanderplatz on Tuesday, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported. Dozens of officers took part, including commercial investigators from the state criminal police office. The checks focused on cafes, restaurants and late-night convenience stores around the TV tower that are popular with tourists.
It was not yet clear whether any violations were found, and no results have been announced. Such joint operations, which besides police often involve tax and regulatory offices and customs, typically target suspected tax and social security fraud, undeclared work, money laundering and the handling of stolen goods.
The location was unusual: inspections of this kind have so far mainly taken place in the Neukoelln, Kreuzberg and Moabit districts. Investigators say the businesses concerned are often registered in the names of front persons while others actually run them.