With the signing of a cooperation agreement, the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministers Lutz Lienenkämper (Finance), Herbert Reul (Interior) and Peter Biesenbach (Justice) launched a new, nationwide unique task force of their three offices to combat international crime at the Düsseldorf State Criminal Police Office (LKA) today at noon (December 14, 2018).
The interdepartmental investigation group will pool experience and instruments from the State Criminal Police Office, the public prosecutor's offices and the tax investigation department in order to track down and dry up the money flows of terrorists in particular. "Terrorists are becoming more and more internationally networked. We can now react to this better and in a more targeted manner, as public prosecutors, tax investigators, police and IT specialists work together efficiently as a team without bureaucratic hurdles and without a lack of expertise," said Minister Lutz Lienenkämper.
The tax authorities help, for example, with investigations into criminal offenses with relevance to criminal tax law. In Department 16 of the State Office of Criminal Investigation, which was newly established for the task force, the tax investigation department of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is specifically involved in investigations in the areas of commercial money laundering, clan crime, organized abuse of social benefits and cases related to "problem properties". In addition, the experts from the financial administration support cybercrime investigations and initiate joint evaluations and analyses of the various crime areas. "Overall, the new task force will make a strong contribution to the fight against organized crime," explained Lienenkämper. There are 58 positions available for the task force, which will be successively filled.
"If criminals are becoming more and more flexible, investigators must not get caught up in the minutiae of box-ticking," said Interior Minister Herbert Reul. "That's why it's good that we're pushing the desks together here today and literally bringing the experts from our three departments to one table," said Reul. "This ensures short distances, a lot of exchange of experience and quick decisions."
The Ministry of the Interior is sending 14 experienced investigators to the newly established task force. They will contribute their criminal investigation expertise to the team of investigators. The Ministry is also providing the office space for the task force at the LKA.
Peter Biesenbach, Minister of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia, emphasized: "We have set out to counter crime with a zero-tolerance policy. If criminals organize themselves to commit their crimes, we have to do the same. That is why the state's public prosecutors, the tax authorities and the police are now working closely together. The task force will use its combined expertise to shed light on serious crimes that cause lasting damage to society. This means uncovering criminal structures in order to put a stop to the criminals and dry up their sources of money. This will improve law enforcement in two ways: Firstly, cleverly concealed crimes will be uncovered. Secondly, and this is a particularly lasting effect, it will make it much more difficult for the perpetrators to continue their criminal activities."
To this end, two particularly experienced public prosecutors will be appointed as central coordinators at the State Criminal Police Office. In addition, seven public prosecutors throughout the state will be appointed as contact persons at the Central and Contact Point for Cybercrime, the Central Organization Office for Asset Recovery, the Central Office for the Prosecution of Terrorism in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the key public prosecutors' offices for white-collar crime. This ensures that the work of the joint unit is dovetailed with the local public prosecutor's offices. The coordinators will legally assess issues that are independent of the proceedings in order to develop strategies and form an interface between the joint unit and the public prosecutor's offices. The contact persons will be available as a permanent point of contact for the task force and its questions.
If you have any questions, please contact the press office of the Ministry of Finance, telephone 0211 4972-2500 or the press office of the Ministry of the Interior, telephone 0211 871-2300 as well as the press office of the Ministry of Justice, telephone 0211 8792-255.
