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Berlin / Hamburg / Essen. When the investigators enter the rooms, it looks like murder. There are red spots everywhere, like blood. On tiles, plastic boxes and shelves. 1000 liters of glycerine tanks are stored in the corner. Who makes narghile tobacco needs this ingredient to keep it moist. In the cardboard boxes, the tobacco is cut like pieces of light brown paper. The sticky red liquid is everywhere aroma: double apple.
The neighbors had become attentive. Someone had rented the old workshop here in a residential area of Hamburg's bacon belt, but there was never anyone outside, no sign, nothing. From time to time trucks left the yard. And sometimes there was a strong smell of fruit tea. At one point, a neighbor alerts the police. Customs lights up.
Suspicion: Shisha tobacco is made illegally in the dilapidated building, beyond cash. For a long time, investigators watched the old workshop, listened to cell phones, monitored supply chains. Then they hit. Currently, the proceedings are taking place before the public prosecutor's office in Schwerin. The objective of the investigators: several accused, including refugees from Syria and Palestinian territories. They would have produced 30 tons of narghile tobacco in just a few months. The tax damage for the state: up to one million euros.
An industry is booming. Whether in Berlin, Essen or Hamburg – in German cities, many nargile bars are reopening. In some cafes, students, young women and men, in others almost only men of Turkish or Arab families. A thick smoke rises from the pipes of the water pipes, the bars smell of apple, honeydew melon or cherry. Depending on the flavor of the tobacco. The brands are Al Fakher, Mazaya or True Pbadion.
The annual shisha fair, as recently in Berlin, attracts several thousand visitors. Just a few weeks ago, a message circulated: the nargile boom saves German tobacco farmers. 96% of the crops eventually turn into hookahs, nearly 5,000 tons per year. Even hookahs already exist. But such messages appear again and again: "Police are preparing an illegal chicha tobacco kitchen" – in June in Langenfeld, near Dusseldorf, when investigators confiscated about three tons of tobacco and several barrels of aroma in an old factory. In early September, the situation escalates during a raid on a bar in Essen Shisha. The police use pepper spray and a baton. In Berlin-Kreuzberg, one night in September, 30 men arrive with cars and crush the emerald shisha bar.
A team of our writers met with customs investigators, police officers, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, but also with representatives of the tobacco industry and the Ministry of Health. We visited cafes and participated in raids.
For investigators, the hookah bar is more and more used. Illegal tobacco trafficking is on the rise, cafeterias often contain dangerous security holes and some bars serve as a meeting place for criminals.
Illegal trade and manufacturing
When the first illicit shisha tobacco came into circulation in Germany, the criminals put it in cans, disguised as hummus, in ports like Rotterdam or Hamburg. Customs have increased the controls, the offenders have stolen. Now they are looking for new methods – and produce in Germany. Ingredients like glycerin are easy to buy, raw tobacco is tax-free. The aromas continue to come mainly from the ports and airports of the Middle East. Customs investigators call the "illegal production lines" the production sites that have proliferated in Germany. "In our sector of activity, we see how criminals working in rented warehouses, sometimes even in residential buildings, build their own production lines and illegally produce hookah tobacco," says René Matschke, head of production. customs investigations in Hamburg.
In hidden places, the attackers mix tobacco, glycerin and flavors in a sticky mixture, often red or yellow-brown. "Red cabbage," says an investigator. In 2013, customs officers were still investigating offenses against water pipe tobacco in 87 cases. In 2017, there were 143 cases. 1125 tons of narghile tobacco were illegally produced during this period.
During searches in North Rhine-Westphalia, investigators discovered nearly 2,500 kilograms of untaxed tobacco this summer, 22,700 euros in cash, as well as machines for printing fake packaging. Twelve members of a known police family are accused, and young people were also involved in the business. The tax damage: nearly 400,000 euros. Five luxury organizations seize customs investigators as "means of action". With the cars, the tobacco was expelled.
In the border region between Germany and Poland, investigators also observe warehouses in which raw tobacco is transformed into a narghile. Among the authors, there are Germans, whose contacts often spread in the Arab States. Illegal producers are becoming more and more sophisticated, says a customs investigator. "In one room, raw tobacco is stored, in another, they make shisha tobacco – and the culprits deliver the goods from a third room." Balanced logistics. The criminals are thus confusing the tracks. And they bypbad the tax. Who produces connected, pays at least 22 euros per kilo.
Refugees are increasingly among the perpetrators in Germany, according to investigators and prosecutors. A case like the one in the Hamburg area with alleged Syrians and Palestinians is not unusual. In another case, investigators discovered "nargile factories" in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The target is 18 accused, including refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. It was not until Tuesday that customs officials raided the premises of a group of Syrian-Lebanese smugglers and confiscated 200 kilos of illegal tobacco.
Some refugees opt for illegality instead of waiting months for asylum and a work permit. Syrians, Afghans, but also Germans are attracting the fast money that brings the narghile back. The Berlin coffee trees report to our editorial staff that the young men are still at the counter, holding in their hands plastic bags containing home-baked tobacco. "They offer their goods at 20 euros per kilo." Legal trade, the kilo costs 60 euros, "said a bar owner, even Syrian. "But the quality is miserable, the water in the pipe becomes red." He rejects these offers from illegal traders.
Hazardous safety holes
Blue light flashes in Neukölln, Sonnenallee. Customs officers move to the counter of a bar to retrieve visitors' pbadports and check the papers of the owners. Marc Gutzeit of the Public Order Office is also involved in the raid. And now, it sounds the alarm.
"Get out! Get out! Get out! "Cree Gutzeit." Then the man from the public order office goes into the back room of the hookah bar.On the shelves there are pipes, in the corner burns an oven, in order to Pre-check the pieces of charcoal for the water pipes.The oven door is broken, only sealed with aluminum foil. "Do not breathe," says Gutzeit .He keeps his carbon monoxide meter away from there It beeps every second, if the values are above 200, we would be safe here only with a respirator.The display flashes at 228.
Gutzeit rips all the windows. "If the values do not go down, we have to evacuate the house." Carbon monoxide is invisible, it does not smell. And yet, it is highly toxic. Recently in Bochum, an alarm in a hookah bar triggered a large-scale operation for firefighters. Six guests were in danger of death and had to go to the hospital. Special forces with respiratory protection found several buckets in the bar cellar containing pieces of glowing coal for hookahs.
Meeting place of criminals
Shortly before midnight, late September, this time in Berlin-Kreuzberg. 30 men drive with cars, go out, in their hands: batons. Witnesses report that the attackers first break the furniture in front of the door and then inside. The guests should also have been attacked. In the Kriminalamt Berlin determines the head of the police station of large criminal families. Marc Gutzeit of Ordnungsamt knows the scene of the "clan" for years. He says that security authorities have repeatedly met clan members in search of warrants during their inspection missions. In North Rhine-Westphalia, an internal FDP politician calls individual café-shisha "places of retirement for half-world personalities".
For their business, organized drug bosses were also recruiting children in hookah bars. "Criminals are looking for young refugees as dealers," Gutzeit said. The often difficult situation of the Syrian or Afghan populations would be exploited. Sponsors are often unknown to police and customs investigators. The more stringent money laundering procedures related to a bar or a cafe are not mentioned by Zoll. "We recognize that authors learn quickly," said Hamburg customs officer Matschke. Since the increased control over illegal "hookah tobacco kitchens", for example, many criminals are becoming more and more conspirators. "They encrypt their communications, for example via messaging services."
The reaction of the state
With the hookah bars, it is in Germany and with the integration of immigrants: the state does not interest him, then he ignores the problems and loses sight of the living environment in neighborhoods such as Neukölln, Hamburg-Harburg or north of Essen. For a long time, the authorities only run after problems.
Until now, the same laws did not apply to hookah bars or smoking bars or restaurants. In principle, smoking is allowed everywhere and serving food. Ovens have not been checked for a long time, exhaust air systems are often lacking. Now, governments are shocked to find that something has to happen – and the state is trying to intervene.
Hamburg is considering a law that obliges bar operators to respect strict conditions. It should be adopted in 2019. A few days after the carbon monoxide alarm in Bochum, the security services searched 16 hookah bars in the Ruhr metropolis. Three of them allowed the authorities to evacuate immediately due to the increased number of readings. At the beginning of a series of raids, the NRW Interior Minister, Herbert Reul, had visibly pbaded the mission. The CDU man stands up – especially against known family clans.
The hookah bar has become a battleground where lawmakers are competing for power with offenders. The Senate in the capital also has consequences. Neukölln District Mayor Martin Hikel (SPD) said hookah bars were "special buildings". For operators, this would mean that their bar or café requires a second outlet, measuring equipment for carbon monoxide and refractory furniture. The other mayors of Berlin, however, do not shoot until here.
According to information provided by our editorial staff, the State Criminal Police Bureau and Customs have also set up their own investigative team to investigate crimes committed at the Shisha-Bar site. The jointly-directed "Investigation Group Cigarettes" (GE Zig) should focus more and more on shisha tobacco – also because it has long been equated with the smuggling of cigarettes.
The series of raids engulfs a lot of personnel – in the fields of police, customs and public order. They are power stings of the state. At the same time, they would be effective, says Marc Gutzeit of the public order office. "The pressure of control is strong and we must act on this basis." And if the detectives in a cafe do not find out anything, they would show that the state is present, said a manager. That the police do not look away.
Also in the district of Essen Borbeck you will find a large warehouse, protected against theft by wire mesh, alarm systems, motion detectors and video cameras. The owner also supplies shisha tobacco in France and Russia. Customs investigators regularly check his warehouse. Complaints: Nil. "We show that doing business is legal," says the owner. The man comes from a family of origin in Lebanon.
d & # 39; Info
A shisha is a water pipe of Arab origin in which most flavored tobaccos (mint, orange, vanilla, rose) are smoked. The smoke is sucked through a container filled with water, called "Bowl". This will cool the smoke. The present form was probably created in Egypt in the 16th century and has spread in most of the Arab world as an integral part of the culture. Smoking is still considered a symbol of hospitality. However, it is indisputable that consumption can have negative consequences on health. The high levels of carbon monoxide inhaled by smokers present particular risks.
Safer:
Berlin also provides for stricter rules for hookah bars
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