It’s depressing to read about common or garden corruption among German politicians. It used to be that Germany and Sweden were exceptions to the general rule: unlike, say, Italy or France, there was very little corruption among public officials.

All that seems to be changing. The following article describes the investigation into a smuggling network that brought Chinese immigrants into Germany with the assistance of avaricious local government officials.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Junge Freiheit. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

North Rhine-Westphalia [ (?) surprise, surprise… NOT]

Human trafficking scandal: SPD politician makes confession

The human trafficking scandal involving wealthy Chinese and purchased residence permits is entering the next round. Now an SPD politician has made a comprehensive confession — while the public prosecutor’s office is also investigating the CDU district administrator of Düren.

Düren

The head of staff in the Düren administration, Jens Bröker (SPD), has confessed to having accepted six-figure bribes from a gang of people smugglers. Bröker has already spent two and a half months in custody and has now given extensive testimony, as the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reports. Since 2018, he has received around €300,000 to influence District Administrator Wolfgang Spelthahn (CDU) and the immigration authorities, the newspaper writes, citing interrogation records in its possession.

Bröker introduced wealthy Chinese people to the smugglers and received between €500 and €1,500 in cash per applicant. He also stressed that he had not given any of his illegal earnings to District Administrator Spelthahn.

CDU district administrator is also said to have helped smugglers

Meanwhile, the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office is also investigating the CDU politician on suspicion of bribery and commercial smuggling of foreigners. Spelthahn is said to have helped in 81 cases to obtain residence permits for Chinese nationals who had immigrated illegally through the smuggling network. His lawyer denies this.

In a sensational raid in eight federal states on April 17, ten suspected members of a gang of people smugglers were arrested. As the JF reported, but otherwise mostly kept quiet, the accused include Bröker and two CDU politicians. Among them is the long-standing district administrator of the Rhein-Erft district, Werner Stump. He is now the managing director of the hotel company of the Villa Sophienhöhe in Kerpen.

In total, the police searched around 100 residential and business premises. The targets are 38 suspected gang members and 147 people who are believed to have been smuggled. If you include family members who were brought in later, the number of Chinese nationals is around 350, according to investigators. In total, they are said to have paid €9,000,000.00 for being smuggled into Germany.

Afterword from the translator:

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, what we’re seeing here. A few years ago, it was noticed in Bremen that the asylum approval rate at a certain authority was exorbitantly high, but nothing was been done. What is politically desired… is being delivered. The simple fact is that the old parties are part of the billion-euro asylum industry, and this should be clear to anyone who thinks independently and rationally. It is also not surprising that the mainstream media are keeping quiet about the arrest of the old party politicians involved, as they are also sympathizers and supporters of the asylum industry. The asylum industry plus Corona have turned the whole country into an El Dorado of corruption. The rule of law is being further destroyed by the undermining of basic rights, opinion terror and denunciation portals. The old Germany no longer exists. It is the end of an illusion. Germany — memories of a nation…