ArmInfo.The law enforcement agencies of Germany did not confirm the information on the connection of the Ambassador of Armenia to Germany Ashot Smbatyan with the mafia operating in the country. The press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan stated this on November 13 at a press conference in Yerevan.
The representative of the Foreign Ministry recalled that immediately after the publication of this, the official Yerevan turned to the appropriate structures in Germany to clarify the veracity of this information. "The information was not confirmed. Moreover, the court in Germany made a decision according to which she ordered publications from dw.com and Der Spiegel, as well as all other media that reprinted this information, to remove all excerpts related to the Embassy and our Ambassador," the spokeswoman said RA MFA.
At the same time, she stressed that attempts to hinder the natural activities of the Armenian diplomatic mission were not crowned with success and the Embassy is working towards the development and strengthening of Armenian-German relations.
Earlier, dw.com with reference to Der Spiegel published an article stating that for three years the German police tried to arrest members of the Armenian mafia in this country, but the threat investigation did not recommend accepting the help of the Armenian embassy in Germany in the investigation. In the article, in particular, it was noted that the criminals from the Caucasus region had built a powerful network in Germany, for three years the investigators in the framework of the secret operation tried to detain and arrest the representatives of the Armenian mafia, but without particular success. "A strictly classified special operation, codenamed Fight against thieves in law, was conducted by the Federal Criminal Police Office (FCPO) in conjunction with six land specialized agencies (LCA). This operation was one of the largest investigations on organized crime in Germany. "Thieves in law" are described in the investigation materials as high-ranking authorities from Russian- Eurasian organized crime. They also control Armenian mafia structures in Germany. Employees of the Federal Intelligence Service BND and Europol helped the criminal investigation team in the investigation. The "point of reference" was the exchange of fire between two criminal clans, which occurred in July 2014 in Erfurt. Then 14 criminal cases were opened against 42 people suspected of financial fraud. According to the LCA. experts, the Armenian mafia in Germany "really exists." Together with other groups from the Russian-Eurasian criminal circles, it has "substantial financial" resources and can "threaten the foundations of the rule of law." However, due to lack of evidence, the results of the investigations have not yet led to accusations and criminal cases. In addition, the topic of crime touched upon diplomatic relations. According to Der Spiegel and MDR, the ambassador of Armenia to Germany, Ashot Smbatyan, offered his German investigators assistance in the fight against the Armenian mafia. However, the LCA recommended not agreeing to this cooperation, noting that the investigators do not exclude the connections of thieves in the law with representatives of state structures of Armenia. As a result, more than 70 operational search activities involving thousands of police officers who were simultaneously in six regions of the kingdom, more than 140 suspects in the arms trade and drug smuggling, money laundering and the creation of clandestine sweepstakes were detained, "the newspaper wrote.