About 50 per cent of the criminal groups operating in Germany belong to the Ndrangheta, the Calabrian branch of the Italian mafia, the head of the German federal police service, Joerg Ziercke, said Monday.
Since the 2007 execution-style slayings of six suspected clan affiliates in the German town of Duisburg, there has been increasing concern about the Ndrangheta's international expansion from its base in southern Italy.
"Half of the criminal groups identified in Germany belong to the Ndrangheta. It has been the biggest criminal group since the 1980s. Compared to other groups operating in Germany, the Italians have the strongest organization," Ziercke said.
His remarks were published by the office of Sonia Alfano, a member of the European Parliament, who invited Ziercke to take part in a conference in Sicily marking the 20th anniversary of the killing of her father Beppe, an anti-mafia journalist.
Ziercke said it was "indispensable" for Germany to copy Italy and introduce the crime of belonging to a mafia-type organization in its penal code. "The mafia cannot be fought only in Italy. It is also a problem for Germany," he said.
Europol Deputy Director Michel Quille said at the same event that the Ndrangheta's annual earnings amounted to 44 billion euros (57.6 billion dollars), topping those of multinational enterprises like Microsoft and Apple.
Pan-European crime-fighting efforts are being hindered by the fragmentation of legal systems within the European Union, Quille lamented.
"We need greater cooperation, nobody can tackle the mafia phenomenon alone," he said.