Exists 25 years – leniency: ‘We protect the bad guys’

For 25 years, the domestic witness protection program has been at work protecting the populace and then being responsible for sensational convictions.

Advanced system
The reason for this is an ingenious and internationally networked system that, in principle, also catches criminals, brings them to safety to testify and thus protects against reprisals from former accomplices or clients.

80 percent are foreigners
“Evidence isn’t always enough to convict those behind the crime, which is where potential witnesses – and their families – come in. About 80 percent of our neighborhoods are foreigners, mostly criminals themselves. That’s how we protect the bad guys,” explains the responsible head of the federal criminal investigation department.

Strict rules apply
Equipped with secret identities, a new place to live and a new job, it’s easier to unpack about mafia activities. However, this is by no means the case for the social hammock, as there are strict rules for those affected. No contact with friends and family and the task of rapid social integration, including a “normal” job.

The success proves the authorities right. Cases like Operation Spring – in which 130 African criminals were rounded up in 1999 – or the Baranski case, in which mafia boss Jeremiasz Baranski was convicted in the early 2000s, would not have been possible without professional witness protection. By the way, there were no failures in the quarter century!