Bremen customs fights against crime: fewer cocaine, more counterfeits!

Bremen customs fights against crime: fewer cocaine, more counterfeits!

A look at the customs balance of the main customs office Bremen shows that the fight against crime has made significant progress last year. Ensuring over 400 kilograms of cocaine may be a high number, but if you compare this with the record values ​​of over 1.8 tons in the previous year, you can see a clear decline. This result, such as sueddeutsche.de Security measures in the port of Bremerhaven.

Bremerhaven remains a significant gateway for the drug smuggling. In order to forward this, customs have expanded its security precautions. A new X -ray area for containers and trucks as well as the possibility of reporting suspicious processes for port employees who work for ports are anonymous. Last year in Bremerhaven with more than 1.8 tons of cocaine, the largest amount in port was pulled out of circulation, which was a record for the customs officials, as was nord24.de reported.

The challenges: counterfeits and undeclared work

A striking trend is also evident in the area of ​​counterfeits. With almost 150,000 fake falsified goods worth over 1.3 million euros, the number has tripled compared to the previous year. Two large -scale piles of fake personal care products were particularly decisive for this increase. According to the reports of the main customs office, it was not only more counterfeiting in 2023, but also found a damage amount of 19 million euros in the fight against undeclared work - that is 2 million euros more than in the previous year.

The determined damage amounts include unpaid social security contributions, taxes and minimum wages, so that thousands of criminal and fine procedures have been initiated. This gives an idea of ​​how much the customs are fighting with the current challenges, which the Beorden-Spiegel illustrates.

conclusion and outlook

The tax revenue of the main customs office in Bremen fell by 700 million euros to the narrow 3.8 billion euros, which in particular concerned import levies, customs and import sales tax. These figures show that the pressure on customs authorities increases, but at the same time the need to improve the structures is increasingly required by unions. With regard to the future, Jochen Kopelke from the GDP has already emphasized that without a strong custom and upgrading the structures, the fight against smuggling and other offenses remains at risk.

So it remains to be hoped that the measures taken in Bremerhaven will continue to bear fruit and that customs can take action against crime together with the police and other institutions.