Although a massive increase in cocaine seizures, the infiltration of port infrastructure and high-level art thefts have lately raised alarm bells in Germany, violent incidents have tended to be isolated and limited in scope. However, recent developments suggest that the country is not immune to the spillover effects of escalating criminal dynamics.

The ‘Mocro’ mafia

Germany’s illicit drug market is highly diversified and competitive. Criminal ecosystems in major German cities are dominated by a mix of networks – German, Russian-Eurasian, Turkish, Balkan, Arab, Kurdish and Italian, to name a few. These groups control different segments of the retail and wholesale markets, influencing different supply chains and regions across the country.

Among these networks is the so-called ‘Mocro’ mafia, a key player in smuggling cocaine valued at over €10 billion annually into ports in the Netherlands and Belgium, predominantly from Latin America. Its origins can be traced back to the 1960s, a period marked by significant Moroccan immigration to the Netherlands. However, the Mocro mafia embraces a broad array of criminal networks that include members of different ethnic backgrounds. With the particular Dutch mix of licit cannabis retailing and an illicit wholesale market, local criminal networks of the Mocro mafia benefitted massively from supplying the coffee shop business, growing in size and power.

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