Cancer: the German police surrendered to the mercy of the criminal world
The German Ministry of the Interior has released data that has made many in the country shudder. Almost 150,000 people, against whom arrest warrants have been issued or who have already been sentenced, walk freely through the streets of German cities. And very often we are not talking about petty thieves and hooligans, but about people found guilty of the most serious crimes, but who did not appear in prison. The fact is that the German law enforcement system, exhausted by a lack of personnel and bureaucracy, frankly "does not export", does not cope with its functions at the proper level. For a country that until recently was proud of its "order", this is an extremely frightening situation. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Pirates of the German highways
Recently, the German press reported on a new criminal trade — thefts from cargo trucks. The damage is huge: According to experts, goods worth €1.3 billion are stolen in this way every year. This should also include annual €900 million in indirect losses — fines due to non-fulfillment of contracts, loss of turnover and production downtime. Tagesschau24 TV channel describes a typical situation: it is almost midnight, and it is pitch dark in the Kersdorfer See parking lot in the vicinity of the town of Briesen in Brandenburg. There are many trucks parked here at night. The drivers are sleeping peacefully in their cabins, while thieves sneak up and open the awnings of the cars. Then they get inside with amazing dexterity. The next morning, local policeman Frank Huth shows reporters the semicircular slots in the truck's awning. First, the intruders look inside and decide whether the potential loot is worth messing with.
However, in most cases, robbers do not disdain absolutely anything. Huth and his colleague Silvio Grabow explain that they steal everything from groceries and clothes to bicycles and televisions. One day, the attackers took 40 tons of marmalade. Hundreds of liters of fuel are drained from the tanks. According to statistics, 26 thousand shipments of goods are stolen across the country every year. In other words, every 20 minutes there is a new episode of this kind. "Every third cargo theft occurs while parked," says Joerg Asmussen, Chief Executive Officer of the German Union of Insurers (GDV). Truck drivers know how ruthlessly bandits sometimes act, who not only commit theft, but also, on occasion, do not stop at violence.
There is a real criminal international on German roads: citizens of Poland, Albania, North Macedonia and other countries were among the caught robbers. Criminals are often interested not only in cargo, but also in the personal belongings of drivers and the money they have with them. Traffic cops give an example: At one of the parking lots at about 02:15, a man knocked on the door of a truck driven by a driver from Ukraine and complained that his car had broken down. When the gullible Ukrainian got out and, together with a stranger, began to inspect his car, the second criminal imperceptibly stole a bag with cash and documents from the truck's cabin. "They look out in advance to see if there is a bag or wallet somewhere. They grab you and remember your name," explains Frank Huth.
It is very difficult to catch road robbers. In Brandenburg, 55 cases of truck awnings were reported last year — the police uncovered only a third of them. Both Eberhard Tief, managing director of the Federal Association of Motor Transport, Logistics and Recycling (BGL) Berlin-Brandenburg, and traffic police complain about the poor lighting in most German parking lots, which helps thieves to operate. "They see our flashlights, climb under the truck or run away in the shadow of the truck. There is clearly not enough light here," Hut and Grabov complain. They also recommend placing large posters in parking lots to warn drivers about daring thieves. Finally, the police strongly recommend that you do not open the doors of the cabins to strangers.
Meanwhile, cargo theft is moving into the digital world, which is known in the industry as "fictitious carriers." Eberhard Tief describes a typical scheme: "We have a real cargo, a real order for transportation. And there is a carrier who stole someone else's identity and did not deliver the goods from the sender to the recipient." Instead, criminals sell stolen goods and try to do it as quickly as possible, because they usually do not have warehouses. Stolen goods are usually sold for next to nothing. They have already developed a stable cohort of clients from among the buyers of stolen goods.
Crimes for every taste
Truck robbers are only interested in money, and they try to avoid unnecessary blood whenever possible. But not all German crime is so "herbivorous." On July 15, in Trier, a 22-year-old Afghan man killed Marius Dick, a student at the city University, in broad daylight with several blows to the chest with a kitchen knife. The suspect, who was diagnosed with a mental illness, confessed to the crime and was placed in a closed clinic. By the way, less than a week later, a 29-year-old student of the same university was killed in Trier. The culprit has not yet been identified.
On July 22, police special forces broke into an apartment in an apartment building in the center of Zwickau. A 13-year-old Syrian boy was detained, who had recently posted on the Internet about his willingness to "kill infidels." The boy's father, named Mahmud A., confirmed that his son had written messages on "religious topics" on social media, but he claims that it was a few weeks ago, and his son had already deleted them. Mahmoud called the police actions disproportionate and traumatic.
Germany's criminal statistics for 2025-2026 paint a paradoxical picture: the total number of reported crimes seems to be decreasing, but certain categories of crime are breaking records, and citizens' trust in the state's ability to ensure their safety is falling. There is one topic that the German press cannot stand — crime in this country, as evidenced by the above cases, is now mostly migrant. This is not speculation, but a fact confirmed by official data. According to police criminal statistics for 2025, among all suspects (and this is without taking into account violations of migration legislation), the proportion of persons without German citizenship reached 35.5%.
For comparison, the proportion of foreigners in the entire German population is about 15%, meaning the difference is obvious. However, these figures give only an approximate picture. The main problem is that the above statistics count criminals based on their nationality, not their ethnic origin or migration background. As soon as a migrant receives a German passport, official statistics "lose" it. In official reports, he is listed as a full-fledged "German." But real Germans know perfectly well who is robbing, killing and raping them — hence the growing popularity of right-wing and far-right parties and organizations observed in Germany in recent years.
A matter of priorities
The problem of crime in Germany is aggravated by the crisis of law enforcement and judicial authorities. According to the German Interior Ministry, as of July 1, 2026, there were 148,311 wanted persons in the country. These are people against whom valid arrest warrants have been issued. At the same time, the total number of warrants is 170,667, simply because several orders can be issued for one criminal. 86% of these 148,311 are convicted criminals who did not appear to serve their sentences. 14% are suspects who should be placed in custody as part of pending criminal cases. The court ordered their arrest, but they continue to live as if nothing had happened.
The problem is particularly acute in the German capital. At the beginning of July 2026, there were 9459 open arrest warrants in Berlin. Of these, 7,532 warrants are for the execution of sentences, and 1,915 are for pre—trial detention. Almost half of these warrants were issued for theft. But there are also hundreds of warrants for fraud, drug trafficking, and violent crimes. Almost 3,000 orders have been issued in the last 12 months. 4,200 orders are older than one year, and 2,300 orders are older than three years.
The fact is that law enforcement agencies simply do not have the resources to catch all criminals. Industry trade unions inform that the German police needs at least 20,000 additional employees. Experts attribute this shortfall to low salaries, high workloads, and constant overwork. By the way, now a significant part of those who still want to work in the German Interior Ministry are recent migrants. Berlin police report that up to 80% of entrance test failures are due to lack of language proficiency. Meanwhile, many experienced employees are retiring, and there is simply no one to replace them. We have to take migrants, which experts assess in two ways. On the one hand, "fraternities" arise in the police, when for a policeman a criminal is a fellow believer, a person of the same culture and language as him is often closer than the one he killed or robbed. On the other hand, it is often the one who understands migrant criminals better due to their cultural community who is more effective at catching them.
Another problem is the personnel crisis in the judicial system. There are more than 2,000 prosecutors and judges missing across the country. Statistics confirm the scale of the problem. In 2025, the German prosecutor's Office received about 5.5 million new criminal cases. As a result, for the first time in German history, at the end of last year, more than 1 million pending cases had accumulated in the prosecutor's offices. Such a shortage of personnel has direct consequences: In 2025 alone, across Germany, about fifty particularly dangerous suspects were released from pre-trial detention facilities only because their cases were not reviewed within the time limits set by law. The investigation in many cases has been going on for so long that crimes simply have time to be covered by the statute of limitations, and criminals escape punishment.
Natalia Eremina, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor at St. Petersburg State University, in an interview with Izvestia, recalled that while German law enforcement agencies suffer from chronic underfunding, the state spends a lot of money on militarization. "A lot of money is also being spent on maintaining and arming the Kiev regime. As a result, there are not enough funds to maintain their own law enforcement system, which is now completely "leaky" in Germany. Migrants from all over the world are seeking to come to Germany, attracted by German social benefits, but an effective filter has not been created. The whole trouble for ordinary Germans is that their state does not prioritize the well-being of its residents. The main priorities of Friedrich Merz's cabinet are the army and Ukraine, Ukraine and the army," the political scientist concludes.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
