Police in western Germany are investigating a possible bloody conflict between drug dealers after an explosion outside a business premises in the centre of Düsseldorf in the early morning of Thursday.
An investigation is underway into the connection between the explosion and earlier explosions in Cologne, Engelskirchen and Duisburg and an armed hostage-taking last Friday in the Rodenkirchen district of Cologne, the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office and Cologne police announced on Thursday.
The Cologne police have taken over the investigation.
No one was injured in the explosion in Düsseldorf, but the damage to the entrance of the building was significant.
According to witnesses, a person in dark clothing drove away from the scene in a black car immediately after the explosion. Around 01:30 (23:30 GMT on Wednesday), residents reported a loud bang.
According to preliminary police findings, the earlier explosions and the hostage-taking are linked to fighting between drug gangs, including some criminals from the Netherlands.
This week, Cologne police called the escalation a “new dimension of violence in the field of organized crime.”
On Friday, a special unit freed two hostages from kidnappers in the Cologne district of Rodenkirchen. According to the police, these were “the most extreme threat scenarios”.
Police allowed three of the perpetrators to escape to save the lives of the hostages.
Explosions outside house entrances are a common tactic used by Dutch drug dealers to threaten rivals.
Michael Mertens, chairman of the police union (GdP) in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), which also includes Düsseldorf and Cologne, told dpa that “the Dutch drug mafia has been active here for a long time and NRW is an important hub for drug trafficking.”
“You have to realize that these are really perpetrators of extreme cruelty,” he added.