In North Rhine-Westphalia there has been a raid on a money laundering complex since the morning. Objects are searched nationwide.

Special units are deployed in a major raid against a criminal money laundering gang in North Rhine-Westphalia. Since early Wednesday morning, searches across the country, divided public prosecutor’s office in Cologne, the customs investigation office in Essen and the state criminal investigation office in North Rhine-Westphalia have been running.

Accordingly, 46 suspects are being investigated in a complex of proceedings on suspicion of money laundering in particularly serious cases. Together with officers from the Düsseldorf police headquarters, 49 objects, including residential and business premises and warehouses, were searched.

Three arrest warrants should be carried out, it said. The officers were on the way in, among other places, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bochum, Essen, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Wuppertal and other, smaller cities.

“During the search of three objects special forces from customs and police were present,” said prosecutor Darya Alikhani-Hooma t-online. “It had to be assumed that the operations here would be dangerous because the accused would likely have weapons at their disposal.”