Shootings in Berlin: Special unit 'Ferrum' stays on – 73 live firearms seized
Since November 2025 the state police unit has opened more than 720 cases and arrested almost 290 people. It will continue because gun violence remains high.
Symbolic image · Photo: Lear 21 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Berlin police are keeping their special unit "Ferrum" against gun violence. Set up at the State Criminal Police Office on Nov. 13, 2025, and originally planned for only a few months, it will now continue "until further notice," a police spokeswoman said, according to dpa. The unit has about 110 officers.
By Oct. 23, Ferrum had opened more than 720 investigations, 483 of them directly or indirectly linked to gun crime. Almost 290 people were arrested, 80 arrest warrants issued and 51 suspects are in pre-trial detention. More than 300 searches yielded 73 live firearms and about 3,400 rounds of ammunition; investigators also checked 4,120 vehicles and 886 bars and restaurants.
Extortion is a key focus. In the first half of 2026, police recorded 585 offences involving firearms, including 261 shootings. In all of 2025 there were 1,119 cases, up 68 percent from 2024.