Mafia in the car business: Georgians exposed in court!

Mafia in the car business: Georgians exposed in court!

Europol has unmasked a suspect who is on trial as a member of a Georgian mafia gang in connection with the alleged carjacking of luxury vehicles in Austria. The defendant, a 40-year-old father of three, described himself as an innocent entrepreneur. Nevertheless, an experienced criminalist presented incriminating evidence on the second day of the trial and dismissed the accused's alibi statements as “complete nonsense”. The investigator confirmed that Europol had obtained information about the defendant's affiliation with a major Georgian criminal organization, which reported international contacts in Bulgaria and beyond. The criminologist said that around a dozen other accomplices were identified throughout the region, which illustrates the scale of the crime. According to his report, more than 30 stolen vehicles have been documented and transported in several countries in recent months, including Georgia, Romania, and Germany.

The fight against organized crime

The chairwoman of the jury senate pointed out that organized gangs today work much less restrictively than before and expect significant profits from the sale of luxury vehicles. The current investigations have not only uncovered a hall near Berlin for processing the vehicles, but also detailed evidence that shows the car traffickers' routes through several countries with a clear time frame. The criminalist presented meticulously collected data that incriminates the defendant in the investigation. Despite a verbal exchange between the defense attorney and the investigator, the suspicions remain based on the available evidence, while the public prosecutor's office requested the interrogation of a co-conspirator arrested in Germany.

Europol, as the central police authority of the European Union, plays a crucial role in coordinating national police authorities in the fight against cross-border crime. Established to facilitate the exchange of information and support national law enforcement, Europol has grown significantly in importance in recent years. The organization is not only responsible for combating drug trafficking and money laundering, but also for extensive analysis of data to combat organized crime. In this context, the European Police Service emphasizes the value of international cooperation, without which no effective fight against crime would be possible, as can also be seen in the current situation in which European investigators are working together to break through criminal structures. So reported meinkreis.at that the proceedings have now been postponed to the beginning of February 2025, while the defendant remains in custody until then.