Berlin police arrest three and seize firearms in cross-state raids on Turkish extortion gangs

Background of the extortion campaign

For more than a year, Turkish and Kurdish business owners in Berlin have been targeted by criminal groups whose leaders operate from Turkey. Shop windows and façades have been shot at repeatedly as part of a protection-money racket. The perpetrators demand large sums and back their threats with violence.

“Young men are deliberately recruited abroad for this purpose. They enter on a tourist visa at short notice and then commit crimes for which they have received orders.”

Wednesday’s raids

At the request of the public prosecutor’s office, police struck early on Wednesday. Around 200 officers, backed by special deployment commandos (SEK) and federal counter-terrorism unit GSG 9, searched eleven apartments in Berlin, mainly in Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Tempelhof and Wedding, as well as a café on Schwedenstraße. Raids also extended to Blankenfelde-Mahlow in Brandenburg and to Bitterfeld-Wolfen in Saxony-Anhalt. The operation targeted twelve males aged 16 to 61. Three were arrested and were due to appear before a magistrate who will decide on pre-trial detention.

Weapons, drugs and cash seized

Officers recovered five live firearms, heroin and other drugs, five-figure sums of cash, several knives and mobile phones. The prosecutor’s office is investigating two of the suspects for protection-money extortion and the others on suspicion of firearms trafficking. Some of the men have previous convictions. They are all classified as part of organised crime.

How the gangs operate

The gangs fly young men from Turkey into Germany for short stays. Known as “shooters,” they are paid to fire at shops, cars or people. They are often housed in rented apartments, receive orders via internet portals or chat groups, and leave the country after one or two weeks. Police President Barbara Slowik Meisel already warned in January that many of the perpetrators barely speak German and that their handlers are either based abroad or embedded in local organised-crime structures.

Intensifying police pressure

Berlin police set up the special unit “Ferrum” in November 2025, and the prosecutor’s office followed with task force “Telum” in February 2026. Their joint work has produced a string of results. On 13 May, a large-scale raid saw 57 officers execute 28 search warrants and arrest nine men, five of whom were remanded in custody. By the end of May, investigators said nearly 30 suspected perpetrators were in detention and more than 100 criminal proceedings were under way.