German customs will be strengthened to play a key role in the fight against organised crime and money laundering, and illegally obtained assets will be confiscated, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Wednesday.
"Customs will become even more powerful, specialized and efficient with the new strategy," he said at a news briefing as he presented measures to fight organised crime and money laundering that will be implemented by the second quarter of 2025.
"The objective is to identify technical developments on the perpetrator side at an early stage and to be able to counter this successfully," Lindner said.
Customs will play an important role in financial investigations, helping to track down illegally obtained assets and uncovering money laundering.
"My motto is don't raise taxes, but enforce laws," Lindner said.
Germany was criticised last year by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for failing to do enough to tackle money laundering and prosecuting few people over the crime despite being one of the world's biggest cash centres.
Last year, Lindner said Germany would create a Federal Financial Criminal Police Office as an authority to combat money laundering and financial crimes, set to be operational in 2024.
"We want to complete the conceptual and legislative work this year," Lindner said.
(Reporting by Maria Martinez; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
