1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Paris OlympicsUS election 2024Israel-Hamas
CrimeGermany

German police swoop in drug raids on asylum shelters

January 24, 2023

Police, including special operation forces, have raided asylum shelters and private dwellings in southwestern Germany after an investigation lasting several months.

https://p.dw.com/p/4MdGP
Officers outside one of the asylum shelters
The morning raids involved some 150 officers and included special operations personnelImage: Tom Weller/dpa/picture alliance

Some 150 police officers took part in raids on Tuesday morning, swooping on private homes and shelters for asylum-seekers in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg.

Officers said they seized amphetamines, marijuana, and cocaine, in the raids, which were aimed at breaking up a large-scale operation selling drugs from accommodation for asylum-seekers.

What we know so far

The raids took place before dawn in the spa town of Baden-Baden and the Rastatt region, near Germany's Black Forest and the French border, with the quantities of drugs seized not initially revealed.

A spokesman for the Baden-Baden prosecutor said authorities had become aware of the shelters as a source of supply after questioning suspects who were detained for possession.

"We have ascertained that people went into the shelters and came out again with drugs," the prosecutor's spokesman said.

He explained that investigators had identified 10 suspected dealers, including a woman in whose home large amounts of drugs were seized, and detained some of them.

Police inside one of the asylum centers that was raided
Police said the suspects were identified in an investigation spanning several monthsImage: Tom Weller/dpa/picture alliance

Special operation forces were deployed in the raids, alongside criminal investigators, because some of the suspects were linked with violent crimes in the past.

Police in the city of Offenburg said the suspects included German, Italian, Gambian, Nigerian, and Egyptian nationals.

They said the suspects had been identified in covert investigations lasting several months.

rc/nm(AFP, Reuters)

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.