German police arrest 10 and freeze €106m in nationwide hotel cleaning raids

Nationwide raids and arrests

German law enforcement deployed approximately 2,200 officers on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, in a coordinated operation against human trafficking and illicit labor in the cleaning sector. Coordinated by the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office, the Federal Police Directorate Berlin, and the Main Customs Office Berlin, the operation saw officers search 104 properties across the country. Searches took place in Berlin, Hamburg, Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Baden-Württemberg. Officers executed ten arrest warrants across the country, targeting members of an organized group suspected of commercial exploitation. Special forces of the Federal Police arrested the 50-year-old alleged ringleader during a morning raid in the Hamburg district of Bergedorf.

Exploitation in the hotel cleaning sector

The operation followed investigations by the joint investigation group Purgatio, which is focusing on 23 suspects between the ages of 31 and 59. Investigators state that the 50-year-old principal suspect and 22 associates operated a network that brought foreign workers into Germany since 2022. The group targeted individuals from Eastern European nations, including Ukraine and Georgia, providing them with accommodation and forged identification documents. These workers were then deployed into the cleaning sector, primarily within hotels across multiple German states, under wages and working conditions substantially below standard domestic legal requirements. Raids also uncovered further instances of unauthorized residency and undeclared labor, with officers securing evidence for ongoing legal proceedings.

Financial freezing orders and shell company networks

To conceal the illicit employment relationships, the suspects operated through an intricate structure of specially created service companies and subcontractors. The network generated sham invoices, embezzled cash sums, and systematically relocated or sold company entities to obstruct scrutiny by regulatory authorities. The investigation also encompasses allegations of commercial tax fraud, social security evasion, and violations of statutory minimum wage requirements. In response to the scale of the financial flows, the Berlin-Tiergarten District Court issued 50 asset freezing orders totaling €106 million. Customs and police officers executed a large portion of these freezing orders during Wednesday's searches to confiscate illicit revenues directly from the network.

We hit the perpetrators where it hurts: the money. In the building cleaning sector, customs repeatedly identifies illegal networks of front and subcontractor companies that draw on entire pools of illegally employed workers.

Inter-agency coordination and international checks

The operational measures extended beyond German borders through parallel enforcement actions by European partner authorities. While German officers searched apartments, residential shelters, corporate offices, and hotels across German states, the Austrian financial police initiated independent audits and inspections at hotel facilities in Austria. In Germany, specific local actions included apartment searches in the Hamburg districts of Harburg, Neu-Allermöhe, and Billstedt, as well as a police search in Halle-Neustadt in Saxony-Anhalt and hotel inspections on Münsterstraße in Düsseldorf. The ten detained suspects are being brought before detention judges, while the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office and customs authorities continue their broader criminal proceedings.