Police are also investigating the possibility of “terrorist financing,” said Ulrike Stahlmann-Liebelt, senior public prosecutor in Flensburg.

The searches – carried out in the states of Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein – were led by the public prosecutor's office in Flensburg against 11 suspects.

Two men from Syria, aged 34 and 37, were arrested and were to be brought before the magistrate. 

The accused 10 men and one woman, the majority of whom come from Syria, are accused of having arranged for illegal financial transactions on an organized basis between December 2018 and July 2019.

They are said to have moved money in the six-figure range money abroad and collected commissions for it, Stahlmann-Liebelt said. 

The origin of the money is not yet known and is thought to have flowed into several countries.

According to Stahlmann-Liebelt, larger amounts of cash were found during the searches. She was not yet able to say if the investigators were able to seize anything else.

A house in Hamburg's Eimsbüttel district was searched. A man was taken away by police. According to NDR information, there were also raids in Schleswig-Holstein in Stockelsdorf and in the Flensburg area.

Vocabulary

Raids – (die) Razzien 

Suspicion of – Vedacht auf 

The accused – (die) Beschuldigte

The magistrate – (der) Haftrichter

Seize – sicherstellen

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