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And then the officer points out something in common with Al Capone
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“Search measures were successful, evaluation is ongoing”
Officials searched several properties in Berlin. The focus of the investigation is the chief of the Arafat Abou-Chaker clan. It should be about tax evasion and money laundering, says police spokeswoman Anja Dierschke in an interview with WELT reporter Marie Przibylla.
With their raid on the Abou Chaker clan, the Berlin police and prosecutors dealt a major blow against organized crime in the clans. His suspicion: large-scale tax evasion. Could the clan chief stumble upon it forever?
meIn the fight against organized crime, the Berlin security authorities increased pressure on the Arab clans on Tuesday morning. More than 300 officers from the police, the customs investigation office and the prosecutor’s office searched 18 objects assigned to the Abou-Chaker family. These included the private residence of the head of the extended family, Arafat Abou-Chaker, at Kleinmachnow, near Berlin, in Brandenburg.
The police had elite officers from the Special Operations Command (SEK) with them in various locations, as some of the family members were likely to endanger the deployed officers. However, according to a police spokesman at the scene, there were no incidents. The police strike began at six in the morning at the same time.
The allegation in the search warrants of the Public Ministry is of tax evasion in relation to management services within the scene of rap, money laundering and violation of the tax code.
“Tuesday morning was not about determining individual suspects, but about obtaining evidence,” an official said. The campaign targeted addresses in Berlin, including an office complex in Treptow-Köpenick. The spokesman for the Berlin prosecutor’s office, Martin Steltner, said on request that similar searches had been carried out in the process in Switzerland at the same time.
As WELT learned from security circles, the deployed officers obtained evidence. However, the investigators did not leave with faces too “confident of victory.” An intensive evaluation will now show whether the search measures were successful or not. It is not yet clear when the prosecution will release the details of the process.
Notorious clan
The Abou-Chaker family clan is not considered the strongest in Germany, but it is particularly notorious. Four members have the status of “accused” in the current process.
The action could also be related to ongoing proceedings against Arafat Abou-Chaker and his brothers, which are currently taking place in a Berlin court. Consequently, the 44-year-old rapper Bushido had the rapper Bushido locked up in late 2017 and early 2018, threatening and insulting and physically assaulting along with his brothers.
The musician and the businessman were considered close friends for many years until Bushido wanted to conclude the collaboration in 2017. Arafat Abou-Chaker then demanded a payment of one million. Bushido reported in court that he had already paid money to Arafat for years. Now it will be verified to what extent these payments were made and, in return, they were taxed.
The former Berlin prosecutor, Sjors Kamstra, had repeatedly called for the burden of proof to be reversed in his years of fighting clan machinations. This means that the state does not have to prove the origin of their sometimes immense wealth to defendants from such large families, but rather has to explain how they arose.
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The Police Union (GdP) welcomed Tuesday’s action. “The measures are important because the rule of law must continue to function to drain the swamp,” said Berlin regional chief Norbert Cioma. Clans like the Abou-Chakers have introduced a great deal of illegal money into the legal cycle in recent years. They would have financed real estate and other luxury items with drug deals, extortion and other sources of criminal income.
“In our money laundering paradise, more than € 100 billion are laundered every year. To finally end this, we need staff and technical increases in the competent authorities, as well as a total reversal of the burden of proof in the case of asset recovery, ”continued Cioma.
An official involved in the case referred to the events in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. “Mobster Al Capone had a lot on the curb, but he couldn’t be prosecuted for it. Finally, it was withdrawn from circulation for tax evasion. Perhaps that will also be successful in the Arafat Abou-Chaker case. “
