About 800 law-enforcement officers searched homes and businesses in Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Belgium on 16 September 2026 in a coordinated operation against a suspected money-laundering network, the Hauptzollamt Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt Customs Office) said.
Investigators, working with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the state prosecutors’ offices in Frankfurt and Darmstadt, allege the network used shell companies to convert illegally obtained cash into ordinary-looking bank transfers – a so-called “cash-for-book-money” scheme – charging a roughly 3 percent commission. According to customs officials, the scheme allowed transport and logistics firms to pay workers off the books and helped facilitate suspected VAT fraud, causing more than €60 million in losses to tax authorities and social insurance funds. Investigators traced roughly €150 million in payment flows linked to the network, which they say has operated since 2017.
Fifty suspects are under investigation, 41 of them in Hesse, where 22 companies were searched. Officers seized around €500,000 in cash, gold, luxury watches, jewellery and vehicles in the initial phase of the operation, along with a firearm and ammunition.
Source: Hauptzollamt Frankfurt am Main, official press release, 16 September 2026.
