Marianna Mkrtchyan. The Armenian Foreign Ministry responded to the publication of the media regarding the relationship of the Armenian diplomatic mission with the mafia in Germany.

Thus, the Spokesperson of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan in particular told ArmInfo correspondent: "The Armenian Foreign Ministry is in contact with the relevant structures of Germany to clarify the veracity of the allegations being circulated in the media. "We do not consider it appropriate to give a more detailed comment. We will provide additional information on the results."

Earlier, dw.com with reference to Der Spiegel published an article stating that for three years the German police tried to arrest members of the Armenian mafia in this country, but the investigation did not recommend accepting the help of the Armenian Embassy in Germany in investigating.

In the article, in particular, it was noted that the criminals from the Caucasus region had built a powerful network in Germany, for three years the investigators in the framework of the secret operation tried to detain and arrest the representatives of the Armenian mafia, but without particular success. "A strictly classified special operation, codenamed Fight against thieves in law, was conducted by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in conjunction with six land specialized agencies (LKA). This operation was one of the largest investigations on organized crime in Germany.

"Thieves in law" are described in the investigation materials as high-ranking authorities from Russian- Eurasian organized crime. They also control Armenian mafia structures in Germany. Employees of the Federal Intelligence Service BND and Europol helped the criminal investigation team in the investigation. The "point of reference" was a shootout between two criminal clans, which occurred in July 2014 in Erfurt. Then 14 criminal cases were opened against 42 people suspected of financial fraud. According to the BKA experts, the Armenian mafia in Germany "really exists." Together with other groups from the Russian- Eurasian criminal circles, it has "substantial financial" resources and can "threaten the foundations of the lawful state." However, due to lack of evidence, the results of the investigations have not yet led to accusations and criminal cases. In addition, the topic of crime touched upon diplomatic relations. According to Der Spiegel and MDR, the ambassador of Armenia to Germany, Ashot Smbatyan, offered his German investigators assistance in the fight against the Armenian mafia. However, the BKA recommended not agreeing to this cooperation, noting that the investigators do not exclude the connections of thieves in the law with representatives of state structures of Armenia. As a result of more than 70 operational search activities involving thousands of police officers, more than 140 suspects in the arms trade and drug smuggling, money laundering and the creation of clandestine sweepstakes were detained, "the newspaper wrote.