Police in Berlin investigating a series of shootings targeting individuals, shops and restaurants have arrested suspected members of an extortion payoff gang.
Around 570 officers, including special units, raided 28 flats and other premises in and around the German capital early on Wednesday morning, according to the public prosecutor’s office and the police.
Nine male suspects aged between 23 and 63 were arrested. They face a range of charges including forming a criminal organization.
The police seized drugs, cash, a firearm, firearm components, two cars, data storage devices and mobile phones.
“It is believed that the group is responsible for numerous extortion cases involving the firing of shots in recent times,” the public prosecutor’s office and the police stated.
Police Commissioner Barbara Slowik said the authorities were “doing everything in our power to uncover these criminal networks and bring them to justice.”
In 2025, Berlin police recorded 1,119 cases of firearm use, with shots fired in 515 cases. Many of the offences were attributed to organized crime.
The incidents often involve the extortion of businesspeople, as well as turf wars and disputes. Turkish and Kurdish shopkeepers and restaurant owners were particularly targeted, with shots fired at windows and building facades.
In some cases, men were shot in the legs in what was likely meant as a warning after the victims failed to make an extortion payment.