Eight hundred police officers were involved in the operation, raiding 49 properties in North-Rhine Westphalia, northwestern Germany with suspected associations with the Iraqi biker group Al-Salam 313, reported German daily Die Bild.
The raids, focused on the Cologne area and the Ruhr Valley, had undergone months of planning.
The gang is suspected to be in violation of the War Weapons Control Act and to have taken part in human trafficking, counterfeiting and drug-related offences, according to Bild.
During the searches, counterfeit money, drugs, computers, cell phones and data carriers were confiscated.
Arrests were not a central aim of the raids; just one arrest was made in the city of Essen, according to North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul. "The action is about finding evidence", police spokesman Christoph Wickhorst said.
Reul told journalists that the seized evidence must be examined to determine whether more arrests would be made.
Al-Salam means peace in Arabic, while 313 bears religious connotations, as Shiite Muslims believe that the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, regarded as a messiah-esque figure, will return to earth with 313 companions.
North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW)’s state interior ministry confirmed to German press outlet Deutsche Welle that it suspects that funds acquired from illegal activity in Germany have been funneled to militias in Iraq.
The group is suspected of having close ties to the Mahdi Army, a militia aligned with the Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr. Both the Mahdi Army and Al-Salam 313 bear the same white dove insignia.
In a promotional video for the group published in 2017, the group shunned sectarianism and insisted that their members are of “all shades and shapes”. They renounce the title of gang or mafia, instead calling themselves an “organization”.
Wednesday’s coordinated raids form part of a long-running, nationwide German police crackdown on Middle Eastern ‘criminal clans’.
According to DW, the NRW’s Criminal Police Office noted in a 2018 report that in recent months Turkish, Kurdish and Lebanese clans have been ousted by their counterparts of Iraqi and Syrian descent.
There are worries that the prominence and notoriety of these clans and the resulting raids against them may contribute to Germany’s existing racial tensions, particularly with regards to the hundreds of thousands of refugees Germany has taken in recent years.
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