According to a study by the German foreign intelligence service , the Bundesnachrichtendienst ( BND ) , ' Ndrangheta groups are using Germany to invest cash from drugs and weapons smuggling . Profits are invested in hotels , restaurants and houses , especially along the Baltic coast and in the eastern German states of Thuringia and Saxony . Investigators believe that the mafia 's bases in Germany are used primarily for clandestine financial transactions . In 1999 , the state Office of Criminal Investigation in Stuttgart investigated an Italian from San Luca who had allegedly laundered millions through a local bank , the Sparkasse Ulm . The man claimed that he managed a profitable car dealership , and authorities were unable to prove that the business was not the source of his money . The Bundeskriminalamt ( BKA ) concluded in 2000 that " the activities of this ' Ndrangheta clan represent a multi-regional criminal phenomenon . " In 2009 , a confidential report by the BKA said some 229 ' Ndrangheta families were living in Germany , and were involved in gun-running , money laundering , drug-dealing , and racketeering , as well as legal businesses . Some 900 people were involved in criminal activity , and were also legal owners of hundreds of restaurants , as well as being major players in the property market in the former East . The most represented ' Ndrangheta family originated from the city of San Luca ( Italy ) , with some 200 members in Germany . A war between the two ' Ndrangheta clans Pelle-Romeo ( Pelle-Vottari ) and Strangio-Nirta from San Luca that had started in 1991 and resulted in several deaths spilled into Germany in 2007 ; six men were shot to death in front of an Italian restaurant in Duisburg on 15 August 2007 . ( See San Luca feud . ) According to the head of the German federal police service , Joerg Ziercke , " Half of the criminal groups identified in Germany belong to the ' Ndrangheta . It has been the biggest criminal group since the 1980s . Compared to other groups operating in Germany , the Italians have the strongest organization . " Sebastiano Strangio allegedly lived for 10 years in the Netherlands , where he managed his contacts with Colombian cocaine cartels . He was arrested in Amsterdam on 27 October 2005 . The seaports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam are used to import cocaine . The Giorgi , Nirta and Strangio clans from San Luca have a base in the Netherlands and Brussels ( Belgium ) . In March 2012 , the head of the Dutch National Crime Squad ( '' Dienst Nationale Recherche '' , DNR ) stated that the DNR will team up with the Tax and Customs Administration and the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service to combat the ' Ndrangheta
San Luca feud
San Luca feud
'Ndrangheta