The mafia, ten affected states – and 3,000 investigators: Interview with a mafia hunter

Berlin/The Hague. Criminals are becoming increasingly networked. There is an agency in The Hague that declares war on the mafia. There: a lawyer from Germany.

Criminals don’t care much about borders. Organized gangs have been operating internationally for a long time. She ships cocaine from South American ports to Europe and smuggles it from Rotterdam, Antwerp or Hamburg through the European Union. And cartels are also well positioned within the EU.

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But it took a long time until that too Investigative authorities better connected. Police and public prosecutors still work nationally, long after criminals had established global networks. The Netherlands is often at the center of dark machinations, especially because of its large ports. It is precisely there, in The Hague, that the European Union has set up an agency that is intended to counter criminals with the power of international law enforcement: Eurojust – a hub for European public prosecutors.

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Every EU country has sent lawyers there. The German delegation is led by the German lawyer Jan MacLean, who has long served as a top official in the Federal Ministry of Justice Worked. In the interview he talks about what Eurojust can do in the fight against criminals – and why some investigations against the mafia require 3,000 investigators.

Jan MacLean, head of the German delegation to Eurojust in The Hague.
© Eurojust | Eurojust

You work as head of the German delegation at the European law enforcement agency Eurojust. Few people in Germany will know what you are doing there. Will you help us?

Jan MacLean: We are a central contact point for public prosecutors and courts in the EU member states. I lead a team of seven prosecutors and judges from Germany; we help the German law enforcement authorities when they lead international investigations. We do not investigate ourselves; this remains the responsibility of the national authorities. But we are networkers, service providers and helpers in the fight against international criminals. We repeatedly receive requests from victims of crime that we should investigate their case. We can’t do that. We are not a public prosecutor’s office, but we are an essential link between the authorities in the Member States, because without our involvement the cooperation would not be successful or not as successful.

The security authorities seize tons of cocaine in European ports. The quantities have become so large that a ton find hardly makes the headlines anymore.
© dpa | Marcus Brandt

Can’t the public prosecutor’s offices in Essen, Berlin or Hamburg provide this networking with administrative assistance?

MacLean: The justice system in the EU, with 27 member states, each with its own legal system, is complex – and very different. Just one example: In some countries they cannot carry out raids before nine in the morning, in Germany from six o’clock. At Eurojust we are experts who know exactly these European legal systems because we come from our own national system. We know the regulations that apply in Italy or Croatia. We can quickly transmit evidence to other countries, while requests for legal assistance are often lengthy. Our work does not change the legal basis for international cooperation, but we speed up the execution of requests and help to avoid problems. The official channels are short and the trust between the delegates from the member states is great. That is our job, and public prosecutors in Germany cannot do it to the same extent.

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Criminals are increasingly operating across borders. Cartels have established global supply chains for drugs or weapons.

MacLean: It is precisely this trend that law enforcement authorities must respond to: criminals are organizing themselves in cross-border networks. And so the public prosecutor’s offices and police authorities must also network. Our procedures are complex, they are not about petty criminals. We help with investigations against members of the mafia or large organizations.

Investigators discovered fruit crates in a garage. The fruit crate mafia makes money from mass theft and makes millions.
© Markus Gayk/dpa | Unknown

What have been your greatest recent successes?

MacLean: In May 2023, police officers arrested more than 130 members of the Ndrangheta in Germany, Belgium and Italy – currently one of the most powerful mafia organizations. Ten states with their prosecutors and police departments were involved in the investigation, and almost 3,000 officers were involved. Joint coordination is a central building block for success. This summer, a gang of ATM busters from the Netherlands were convicted in Germany. The men had built more than three million euros and caused damage to the banks of four million euros. But we also help with investigations against drug smugglers or – as now – in the fight against fraud, for example with counterfeit food. This is also a common criminal method used by mafia organizations, which have long since discovered the food industry for their machinations.