Crime – Munich – Long prison sentences for gang of call center scammers – Bavaria
Munich (dpa / lby) – For years, false police officers from an international gang have excluded unsuspecting people, especially in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Now 67 men and women have been sentenced in Turkey for organized call center fraud. The regional court in the city of Izmir has imposed long prison sentences and confiscated assets equivalent to more than 60 million euros, the Munich police headquarters announced on Wednesday. The police estimate the damage to the victims at more than 120 million euros. The verdict is not yet legally binding. The state news agency Anadolu had already reported on Monday.
The leader of the gang left Bremen for Turkey in 2012 and set up the call center there. Telephone operators, also known as boars, called the victims from there and pretended to be police officers in order to lure money and valuables out of their victims with fabricated stories. In December 2020, the leader and other members were arrested in a raid in Izmir.
“According to our investigations, these gang structures are an environment with the highest criminal energy, because the perpetrators do not shy away from serious crimes,” said Hans-Peter Chloupek, the police officer in Munich, who reports to the specialized investigative unit AG Phenomena. What are the penalties. The boss of the gang was accepted by the police with a sentence of 400 years and six months, others between six months and 199 years.
Officials from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg as well as the Federal Criminal Police Office have been on the trail of the perpetrators since 2017. Chloupek spoke of a judgment with a signal effect for similar procedures at home and abroad. “The close cooperation with the authorities in Turkey when dismantling the call center has developed over the years and is very good.” The officer could now point to a happy ending for the defrauded, also in view of the assets that were confiscated. “We hope that the victims can now also receive financial compensation from the Turkish authorities,” he said.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220928-99-926359/3