Berlin (dpa) – Berlin police launched dawn raids on Thursday targeting organized crime syndicates, in an operation involving around 500 officers, authorities said.

Thirty-three apartments and other premises were searched in the German capital, the surrounding state of Brandenburg and in the northern city of Hamburg, the Berlin public prosecutor’s office said.

Three suspects have been taken into custody.

Martin Steltner, a spokesman for the prosecutor, said the operation focused on suspected criminals within large families of Arab descent and their links to biker gangs.

Investigators are pursuing charges of forming a criminal organization, violent debt collection, fraud and drug trafficking. The culprits were able to generate “substantial assets,” a statement from police and prosecutors said.

The raids were intended to seize some of those assets while also gathering evidence, it added.

“We are fighting against parallel justice and organized crime,” the Berlin public prosecutor wrote on Twitter.

A probe has been ongoing for a year regarding 36 suspects of various nationalities, including members of the Hells Angels.

Two of the three detained suspects belong to a well-known crime family, the prosecutor said.

Local media reported that the arrest warrants were linked to criminal activity in real estate, citing Steltner.

The main locations targeted by the raids were said to be the Berlin districts of Mitte, Charlottenburg and Spandau.

Police said special security forces were also deployed in the raids, which began shortly after 6 am (0500 GMT).

Arab clans in Berlin and other German cities have made headlines in recent years for their links to drug dealing, including “cocaine taxi” deliveries, as well as tax evasion and money-laundering.

In late September, several million euros was recovered in raids relating to bogus manager fees in the German rap scene.

Members of one organized crime family based in Berlin have been linked to spectacular heists at the capital’s Bode-Museum in March 2017 and at the Green Vault, a baroque treasure trove in the eastern city of Dresden, in November 2019.

Three relatives were arrested last month in connection with the Dresden robbery, while two others were able to flee.