Organized crime in Germany is becoming more violent, more international and increasingly organized through digital channels, according to the Federal Situation Report on Organized Crime 2025, presented by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Ministry of the Interior on 15 September 2026.
German authorities conducted 683 organized-crime investigations in 2025, identifying nearly 8,000 suspects – the highest number in five years – with about 69 percent of cases showing a cross-border dimension. Drug trafficking remained the largest single field of activity, accounting for roughly 37 percent of proceedings. Cocaine and crack seizures reached 10.1 tonnes, of which 6.5 tonnes were intercepted at German ports; cannabis seizures roughly tripled year-on-year, and authorities dismantled 567 cannabis-growing operations of at least 20 plants each, an increase of about 55 percent over 2024.
The report also points to a shift in how organized-crime groups operate. Authorities describe increasing use of “crime-as-a-service” arrangements, in which logistics, weapons, money laundering and even the recruitment of – often underage – suspects are offered and brokered over encrypted messaging apps and social media, sometimes by people directing operations from abroad without ever meeting the perpetrators. Officials also flagged a rise in “fully counterfeit” firearms manufactured outside legal channels, chiefly smuggled into Europe from Turkey, and an increasing readiness to use violence, including extortion, in public spaces.
Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said organized crime posed a “growing threat” to domestic security and pointed to a joint action plan to seize illegal assets and increase penalties. BKA President Holger Münch said criminal networks were increasingly digital, international and structured through a division of labour, requiring police to target underlying structures rather than individual offences. Germany’s federal drug commissioner, Hendrik Streeck, linked the estimated 2,150 drug deaths recorded in 2025 to organized crime’s drug trade, saying authorities would target both the supply of drugs and prevention of addiction.
Source: Federal Ministry of the Interior and Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), official press release, 15 September 2026.
