Three men have been sentenced for their role in a high-profile robbery that set off a drug war in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the summer of 2024, which involved hostage taking, explosive attacks, and even torture.
The case involved 700 kilograms of marijuana and dated back to June 2024, with half of the stash being stolen during an armed robbery near Cologne. This sparked off a sprawling war between criminal gangs, with two hostages being taken. Cologne also suffered from bombing attacks.
Three of the major perpetrators, all who are dual German citizens, were sentenced.
The 22-year-old Aymen G., who has German and Algerian citizenship, was found to have given the robbers decisive tips and was handed seven years in prison.
The 22-year-old Saddam B., who also has Iraqi citizenship, received six years in prison. He had a shorter sentence due to the torture he experienced at the hands of a Dutch gang member, which had been ordered by the gang’s boss. They were seeking information about the stolen drugs, according to Bild.
The 22-year-old Ayman S., who also has Tunisian citizenship, was charged with aiding and abetting drug trafficking. He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and was under probation at the time of the incident.
The big issue with crime statistics
The fact that all three men have German citizenship means that in the federal crime statistics, they will be counted as German, with no mention of their other citizenship.
Currently, all dual citizens are counted as “German” in the crime statistics, with the exception of one state: North Rhine-Westphalia. Just last month, the state announced it would become the first of Germany’s 16 states to begin releasing data on the foreign background of suspects with dual citizenship.
However, North Rhine-Westphalia will not be able to send this data on to the federal level, as that is still against the federal reporting rules. This means on a nationwide scale, the public is still having this data hidden from view.
Interior Minister Herbert Reul, of the Christian Democrats (CDU), announced the reasoning behind this change in policy.
“If we don’t capture all nationalities, we’re in the dark. If you want to see reality, you have to measure it,” said Reul.
“This is the only way we can call a spade a spade and enable our police to identify dangers at an early stage and combat crimes effectively. Security only comes with clarity. When we record multiple nationalities, we create transparency – thus strengthening our police force in the fight against crime,” he added.
If all German states were to begin reporting on the crimes of dual citizens, it could potentially reveal hundreds of thousands of crimes committed by dual citizens across the country, and would dramatically change how the national statistics are viewed. Foreigners already account for nearly six in ten violent and serious crimes in Germany, which means the number is actually far higher if dual citizens were included.
As Remix News recently reported, Berlin’s clan crime statistics have been released, and they highlight how crime reporting is vastly distorted in Germany, which fails to account for the migration background of suspects. Instead, more and more serious crime is attributed to Germans, which fails to provide a comprehensive picture of crime trends in the country.
The data shows that there were 616 clan crime suspects. Of these suspects, 324 have German citizenship. Another 108 are “stateless,” 94 are Lebanese, 28 are Turkish, 15 are Syrian, and 47 have multiple nationalities. That totals 292 foreign suspects.
This means that in Berlin, more than half of the clan criminal suspects are listed as Germans in the crime data, totalling 52.6 percent.
