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After bloody clashes between men of the Remmo clan and Chechen militants, officials fear a gang war in Berlin. The images of current battles circulate on the web: blows, kicks, knife wounds, screams.
A cell phone video shows several men stepping on a man lying on the ground in Gesundbrunnen. Another clip shows the attack on the Späti in Nordneukölln, in which members of the Remmos are regularly present. An unconscious and injured man can be seen, as well as smashed furniture on the sidewalk.
A third video, which is also available for the Tagesspiegel, shows a man who is bleeding profusely. Authorities report that he was stabbed in the head with a knife. Department 4 of the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) responsible for organized crime is determined.
It is still unclear whether these are turf wars in drug trafficking or wounded honor. In the past, both sides sometimes referred to Muslim traditions in conflicts, speaking of “honor” and “prophet”. Religious things played a role in Berlin, especially among Chechens who were known to the police.
In the summer, Chechens mobilized for gang warfare in France
According to information from Tagesspiegel, Chechens living in Brandenburg and Saxony want to help their “brothers” in Berlin. By the summer, the Chechens had mobilized across Europe in a gang war in Dijon, France, where the North Africans were their opponents. The LKA wants to observe “travel movements”. A total of eleven men were injured in the attacks over the weekend. Six Russian citizens have been temporarily detained; according to unconfirmed information, they come from the semi-autonomous region of the Caucasus.
The Berlin LKA is examining four incidents with a view to a possible clan war. First of all: on Saturday night, young men in costumes broke into a night shop on Wildenbruchstrasse in Neukölln, which is part of the Remmo clan. As reported, 30 thugs are said to have attacked each other with knives, chairs, and water pipes. Three men, aged 16, 39 and 46, were injured, some seriously, by blows and stab wounds.
There is a police station just a hundred meters in the direction of Sonnenallee: six suspects between the ages of 17 and 31 were provisionally detained around 7 pm. Men from Lebanon’s Remmo clan are supposed to run the shop “de facto,” officials say, the German-Arab family is active in many places in Neukölln.
Investigators assume that the attack on the Späti provoked an act of revenge at the Gesundbrunnen train station. Witnesses told police that five people were talking on the street in a Porsche when three cars approached and ten people got out. The men who had arrived attacked with knives and clubs.
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The next fight followed on Sunday night, again at Gesundbrunnen in Berlin’s old Wedding district. About 20 Arabic-speaking men attacked two men around 5:30 pm A video of the incident shows three men kicking a 31-year-old man in the parking lot in front of the train station; the Chechen man was wedged between two vehicles. The video was recorded from a slowly moving car.
Nearby, as can be seen in the clip, men beat up a man who was lying on the ground from behind. He tried to flee on all fours but collapsed. To do this, a man stabbed him in the back with a knife. The victim was later identified as a 43-year-old Chechen. A third video shows witnesses helping the bleeding man.
Knife stabbed on Brunnenplatz in front of the Wedding District Court
There was also a fourth attack on Sunday night, this time at Brunnenplatz in front of the Wedding District Court. The LKA is examining whether this case can also be attributed to clashes between the Remmo clan and the Chechens. According to the police, a 34-year-old Russian citizen was attacked with a knife around 8:45 p.m. after an argument with two or three men. He was injured by a stab wound to the upper body. The man was taken to a hospital by taxi.
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Fights between families in the clan environment, sometimes also between ethnically organized gangs, occur over and over again. Sometimes it is business, sometimes so-called questions of honor. Chechens are suspected of not wanting to subordinate themselves to the German-Arab superior dogs in the middle hierarchy.
The clans of Lebanon have been active in Berlin for 30 years, many Caucasus cliques for only ten years. Until now, Chechen gangs have been traveling in Berlin as service providers and henchmen. They did jobs like collecting money.
The extended Remmo family, which is present throughout the city, is unusually large even for the clan environment. The Remmos became known because relatives are said to have killed a man in Britz in 2017 (for which the defendant was acquitted). Two cousins have been convicted of stealing the gold coin from the Bode Museum, one of which is now final. Earlier, a family member blew up a savings bank. Remmo’s men have shone for years due to fights and gun violations.
It is not the first fight between Remmos and Chechenos
Snacks, rented apartments, retail – well-known Remmo members in the criminal milieu have tried in recent years to invest money in the trendy north of the district. After years of investigations by the State Criminal Police, more than 70 properties attributed to the family were confiscated on suspicion of money laundering in the summer of 2018.
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The last dispute between the extended Remmo family and young Chechens was at an auto repair shop in Tempelhof in 2018. A Chechen man murdered a clan member. The LKA bodyguards accompanied the Chechens to the subsequent trial.
The rapper “Capital Bra” was also registered in the area of the Chechen-Arab conflict, but as a victim. As they had helped him years ago, members of the “El-Zein” clan allegedly demanded 500,000 euros from the musician. To locate Capital Bra, the clan is said to have used the services of young Chechens. However, the Chechens were unsuccessful: the musician went to the police.
The investigators do not rule out that Chechen gangs now want to take over the business of their former clients. Meanwhile, “they would claim their own illegal business areas, for example drug trafficking,” according to a note from the LKA. In the vicinity of Chechens, authorities increasingly search suspects of “Dagestan, Turkish and Central Asian” origin. Sometimes they have “relevant experience of armed conflict”, as the LKA puts it.
Experienced in war and with a penchant for violence and weapons.
The youngest of these men was active as a jihadist in the wars in Iraq and Syria, the oldest in the Chechen wars of the 1990s. According to experts, some participated in the post-Soviet wars in Abkhazia, Ossetia, Ukraine, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Another problem for investigators: Chechen criminals have “an unusual cohesion,” as police put it. “The scene is still characterized by a rigorous system of sanctions and a remarkably formal and informal trans-regional network,” the LKA officially declares. In addition, there is “a pronounced concept of honor, a high affinity for violence and weapons, and a low acceptance of state authority.”
Statistically, it can hardly be proved whether Chechens are more conspicuous from a criminological point of view than other groups, as there is no Chechen citizenship. Chechens not only live in Chechnya, that part of Russia, but also in Dagestan and Ingushetia: they have Russian passports.
Police Union: “Have no scruples”
“We have been waiting for this kind of clashes between groups of Arab and Chechen origin for a long time, because the latter no longer want to be employed as mercenaries, but rather want a big part of the cake themselves,” said Benjamin Jendro of the Police Union GdP) in Berlin. . These are people for whom combat trials are part of their upbringing: “The fact that they hunt down a large Arab family known practically within their own four walls in Neukölln shows us that they have no qualms about leading the fight for the lucrative commercial areas of organized crime to the streets. lead to. “
Already in 2016, 30 men, mostly Chechens, founded a gang in the style of a rock club: the “Guerrilla Nation Vaynakh”.
“Vaynakh” means “people” in Chechen, but it describes the alliance of the Caucasus Sunni-Muslim nations of the Chechens and Ingush. The task of the troops was “that of the violent executioner,” as the LKA investigators noted. In May 2017, men from this group fired machine guns at an Albanian-run café in Berlin-Wedding. Apparently, it is said, it was a dispute in the middle of drugs.
Chechens, clans and organized crime
The Chechens also recently fought turf wars among themselves. In August 2018 there was a shooting with pistols and revolvers at a Chechen cultural center in Reinickendorf, in which two competing groups participated.
Investigators are also taking on turf wars, there should have been disputes over lucrative places in the drug trade. The LKA investigated 16 suspects with Russian citizenship for attempted murder. Including 13 Chechens, two Ingush and one Kalmuco, all nationalities of the Russian Federation.
