Miri-Clan

The Miri clan is a Mardelli family-group based in Germany. The clan consists of over 30 extended families who arrived in Germany in the 1980s as refugees from Lebanon. They are particularly prominent in Bremen, where they have around 3,600 members. In Germany, experts assume there are over 10,000 members. The clan is also active in Turkey and Sweden.^[2][3][4]

The Miri Family intermarry with other clan members to keep the power balance of the Family according to Ralph Ghadban [de].^[5]

Some of the members of the Miri family act as an organized crime group, with crimes including threats, drug and weapons trafficking, and prostitution.^[6] Money is laundered through real estate transactions and protection rackets^{[citation needed]}. The Miri Clan engages in several legal ventures to maintain a legal appearance^{[citation needed]}.

They are active in Lower Saxony. It is estimated that, in the city of Bremen alone, the group makes approximately €50 million each year from drug-related crime.^[7]

The families are particularly active in Hannover, Hildesheim, Stade, Achim, Wilhelmshaven, Peine, Göttingen, Osnabrück, Braunschweig, Salzgitter, Hameln, Lüneburg, Bremen and Delmenhorst^{[citation needed]}.

In July 2019, a Bandidos hairdresser was shot in Dortmund by a member of the Miri family^{[citation needed]}. The shooter has not yet been found. Also in 2019, the rapper 18 Karat from the environment of the Miri Family was arrested after a shooting, but was released because he had an alibi. Previously, four brothers of the Miri Family had also been arrested by the police in Bochum.^[8]

Ibrahim Miri was boss of the gang for decades. On 10 July 2019, GSG 9 police officers arrested and escorted him, flew him to Berlin in a Federal Police helicopter and deported him to Beirut, Lebanon. Shortly afterwards, Ibrahim Miri re-entered Germany with the help of smugglers and was deported again on the night of November 23rd, 2019.^[9]

Ahmad Miri is considered one of the leading figures. In 2017, he offered a bounty for information about the whereabouts of an unknown person who had called him and the Berlin rapper Bushido “sons of bitches”. Ahmad Miri served several years in prison for drug trafficking.^[10]

Leaders of the Miri clan communicated using encrypted EncroChat communications. When French investigators decrypted the communications in 2020, several members of the Miri gang were accused of crimes and some were convicted^{[citation needed]}.

The Miri Clan controls large parts of the drug trade, especially the cocaine trade, in Bremen^{[citation needed]}.

In 2021, the police raided the clan, focusing on Dortmund. The head of the Miri drug trade, Esmat E., had previously fled to Spain because he was being searched for with an international arrest warrant. He was later discovered in Turkey.^[11] The Miri gang is said to have operated temporary storage facilities for cocaine in Dortmund and Werl. They are said to have manufactured the drugs themselves and resold them as allegedly Peruvian and therefore more expensive cocaine.^[12]

The Miri gang plays an important role in prostitution in Dortmund and Bremen. Leading gang members act as pimps and move women between different prostitution locations^{[citation needed]}.

The Miri Gang uses real estate and legal businesses to launder money in Dortmund and Bremen. The Miri gang collects protection money from restaurateurs in Bremen. The gang members dominate the scene of shops, kiosks and clubs, especially in the entertainment district Viertel and the railstation area (Hauptbahnhof and Remberti Viertel)^{[citation needed]}.

The Miri gang had managed to infiltrate an informant in the anti-money laundering authority of the Federal Ministry of Finance, which is subordinate to customs. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) collects and analyzes suspicious activity reports in accordance with the Money Laundering Act. Employee Alexandros P. had passed on confidential information from the unit to the gang for months. He also used his access rights to government databases to query the central register of foreigners. The Bremen police discovered the man because his name came up in a wiretapped phone call from a gang member.^[13]

On 30 January 2009, Hussein Al Zein was shot and his fiancée was seriously injured. Heisem Miri (the perpetrator) is now on the run and is suspected of being in the Middle East.^[14]

On 10 July 2019, GSG 9 police officers arrested and escorted 46-year-old Ibrahim Miri from his apartment in Bremen, flew him to Berlin in a Federal Police helicopter and deported him to Beirut, Lebanon.^[15]

A large proportion of the Miri gang members receive transfer payments from the state (citizen's benefit, III or social benefit according to SGB XII or according to the Asylum Act). This means that criminal family members are considered unemployed and at the same time earn money through criminal activities. In some job centers, family members are banned from the premises because they have physically attacked employees.^[16]

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