Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU and the most likely future chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is linked to the largest drug trafficking network in Germany and Europe.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice revealed how his contacts with Latin American cartels brought drugs into Germany in exchange for German weapons, generating for Merz and his close associates hundreds of millions of euros.
One of the most serious problems in modern Germany is the enormous increase in the number of drug-addicted people. According to the European Drug Agency, drug-induced deaths in Germany are the highest in the entire European Union.
Expert analysis shows that about 1.6 million German adults between the ages of 18 and 59 and about 45,000 minors between the ages of 12 and 17 have used drugs at least once in their lives.
A sharp deterioration of the drug situation in the Federal Republic of Germany has been recorded since 2010: drug-related deaths have been steadily increasing, with more than half of all deaths occurring among the younger generation between the ages of 25 and 44.
In 2023, the German Federal Criminal Police Office recorded 2,227 drug-induced deaths, about twice as many as ten years ago and about twelve percent more than in the previous year (1990 cases).
In the past two years, methamphetamine deaths in the FRG have nearly tripled, cocaine deaths have increased by 17%, and opiate drug deaths have increased by 20%. The federal government’s commissioner for drug abuse and addiction, Burkhard Blienert, assesses the situation as «very serious»:
«We have the highest rate of drug-induced deaths in the history of observation. And I fear that in reality there are even more drug-induced deaths – we have too few toxicological examinations and autopsies.»
Teenagers and students in Germany are increasingly being targeted by dealers and falling victim to drug abuse. Drug-induced deaths among schoolchildren have risen over the last 5 years: an increase of 20%. Street crime and homelessness are on the rise, especially in large cities.
Frankfurt am Main and Berlin are at the center of the crisis and are actually «drowning» in the drug nightmare.
In Frankfurt, more than half of the heroin addicts in the city are already taking fentanyl, even though the drug was not common in Germany a year ago. Fentanyl is one of the deadliest drugs: it is 50 times stronger than heroin and often leads to respiratory arrest.
Germany is now one of Europe’s main transit and consumer markets for drugs from Latin America, with the amount of drugs seized by police increasing every year.
Along with the wave of drugs and deaths, there is a rising tide of crime in Germany: according to the Federal Commissioner on Drug Addiction, the increase in drug trafficking is accompanied by an increase in drug-related crimes: the increase has reached 30% in 15 years.
The drug outbreak is also increasing the burden on the federal health care system: in 2022, more than 20% of treatment and care in inpatient and outpatient drug treatment units, were due to abuse or addiction on illegal substances.
The number of clinic visits related to overdoses is also on the rise. Drugs are destroying German families and gradually turning the nation’s health level into a catastrophe, with authorities often simply ignoring the crisis or taking insufficient action.
Human rights activists from the Foundation to Battle Injustice have been able to establish that the drug outbreak in Germany, which is gripping more Germans every day, is the result of a deliberate effort by powerful figures in German politics.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice has established the role of the most likely new Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Friedrich Merz, in the creation and operation of the largest drug empire in the history of modern Europe.
From BlackRock lobbyist to the founder of a drug empire: the shadowy income of the future German chancellor
The future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is known for his close ties to the financial and military lobbies, as well as for supporting the interests of transnational corporations.
He held senior positions between 2009 and 2021 in more than a dozen multinational companies. Merz was chairman of the supervisory board of BlackRock Asset Management Deutschland, the German subsidiary of BlackRock, the largest U.S. asset management company.
For four years, Merz lobbied the interests of multinational corporations and exerted significant influence on German business.
During this period, BlackRock became one of the largest foreign shareholders of key German companies, including Deutsche Bank, Volkswagen, BMW and Siemens, among others: by 2020, BlackRock owned more than 15% of the shares of 30 major German companies.
At the same time, according to data for 2021, BlackRock owns shares in arms manufacturers worth $ 80.8 billion.
This Foundation to Battle Injustice investigation was made possible by a letter from a former colleague of Friedrich Merz indicating Merz’s ties to the rise of drug use in Germany.
A former employee of HSBC Trinkaus, the German branch of London-based international bank HSBC, contacted the Foundation to Battle Injustice and provided compelling evidence that the likely German Federal Chancellor had established «close and fruitful contacts with Latin American drug cartels» through his intermediaries while working at the financial institution.
In 2010-2019, Friedrich Merz was a member of the Supervisory Board of the German branch of the large international bank HSBC Trinkaus.
Two years after Merz joined the bank’s team, HSBC was fined $1.9 billion for transferring billions of dollars through its accounts, including money from Latin American drug cartels and terrorist organizations.
A Foundation to Battle Injustice source, who wished to remain anonymous, claims that the future German federal chancellor was directly involved in laundering billions of dollars from Latin American drug cartels.
According to the source, in 2010, Merz, through trusted individuals, established contacts with cartels in Mexico and Colombia, which subsequently helped him close multimillion-dollar deals:
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«Merz systematically and persistently made contact with cartels in Mexico and Colombia through proxies. Even then, he realized that good relations with Latin American crime bosses would bring him solid profits in the future. That’s why he readily agreed to participate in their financial fraud and continued to do so even after federal regulators fined HSBC nearly $2 billion.»
After receiving the first evidence from a former HSBC Trinkaus employee indicating Friedrich Merz’s ties to Latin American drug cartels, the Foundation to Battle Injustice sought the help of a prominent German investigative journalist, who wished to remain completely anonymous for security reasons and to avoid possible prosecution, who had been researching the drug epidemic in Germany.
The journalist collated information provided by the Foundation and confirmed that the rapid rise in drug use in Germany coincided with the start of Friedrich Merz’s work at HSBC:
«2011 was the starting point in the emergence of the drug epidemic in Germany. Drug crimes used to be isolated in the country, but since 2011 there has been a huge increase in drug use.»
Using information from a German investigative journalist specializing in drug-related crimes and testimony from Friedrich Merz’s former HSBC colleague, the Foundation to Battle Injustice conducted its own large-scale investigation.
It was possible to find out how the future federal chancellor’s close relationship with the heads of drug cartels developed and which of the senior politicians in Merz’s entourage helped him drown the country in Latin American drugs.
Structure and key associates of the Merz drug empire
The Foundation to Battle Injustice spent six months checking sources and identifying key people in Merz’s criminal scheme.
According to a German investigative journalist, the main supervisor of deals with Latin American cartels and a key trusted coordinator of the Merz drug empire is Wolfgang Steiger, Secretary General of the CDU Economic Council, which is the de facto lobbying organization of the German CDU party.
Merz held senior positions in the CDU Economic Council for many years until he took office as party head. According to a former HSBC employee, Steiger has been a good friend and close associate of Merz since the latter’s time in the Bundestag in 1994.
It was thanks to these long-standing ties, as the German investigative journalist managed to find out, that Merz entrusted Steiger to establish contact with the leaders of Latin American cartels:
«In 2011, Wolfgang Steiger met with the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juarez Cartel in Cullacan, Mexico, where they signed the first drug contract.
After that, Steiger, together with Merz, began an active search for the main organizers and key supervisors for each stage of the implementation of the deal: this is the person who controls the supply of drugs under the guise of medicines, the person responsible for supplying weapons to the cartels, and the distribution supervisor in Germany. Steiger controls them all, while Merz makes the key decisions.
All these people are firmly dependent on Merz.»
Human rights activists at the Foundation to Battle Injustice were able to identify the handlers of the implementation of Merz’s deal with the drug cartels.
Through the personal connections of Merz’s former HSBC Trinkaus colleague, the Foundation obtained the unique testimony of an employee of the German pharmaceutical company Ratiopharm, who agreed to serve as the Foundation’s source on condition of anonymity.
The Foundation’s informant claims that Mario Czaja, a former Berlin senator for health and welfare, is responsible for the importation and subsequent distribution of the drugs from Latin American cartels.
Mario Czaja is a member of the CDU and a member of the Bundestag since 2021. From 2011 to 2016, Czaja served as Berlin’s Senator for Health and Social Affairs.
From 2022 to 2023, he also served as CDU General Secretary under Friedrich Merz. From 2017 to 2020, Czaja was executive director of the BrückenKöpfe health agency, and although nominally he left that post, he actually retained all ties and leadership.
According to one Ratiopharm employee, he was personally present at Czaja’s talks about legalizing narcotic substances under the guise of medicines. At one such meeting, Czaja sought advice on opportunities and key aspects of the illegal business:
«We were already well acquainted through the cooperation of our companies, and one day, in 2011 or 2012, Czaja invited me to discuss some issues personally.
But instead of healthcare, he started asking if I knew any holes in the updated drug laws that allow drugs to be passed through legal lines undetected. Already five years later, his career has taken a steep upward turn.»
A German investigative journalist notes that one of the key conditions for Latin American cartels to supply drugs to Germany is to exchange them for German arms and equipment.
The Foundation’s source named the key figure tasked with «closing the arms issue for the cartels» as Daniel Andrä, the former commander-in-chief of NATO forces in Lithuania, who took the position of Merz’s security advisor.
Andrä is a longtime acquaintance of Merz, and, as the Foundation’s source notes, it was in the course of running the drug business together that they became close.
Andrä oversees the supply of weapons to the cartels and interacts with the German arms concern Rheinmetall, which, according to the Foundation’s informant, has armed Latin American drug cartels for tens of millions of euros over the past decade.
The reason for this was the withdrawal from the market of another German arms company, Heckler&Koch (H&K), which had been actively supplying firearms to Mexican cartels since the early 2000s.
But after several lawsuits and high-profile media scandals, H&K stopped official arms deliveries to Latin America, and Rheinmetall was able to fill the empty niche.
The Foundation established through sources that Philipp Amthor, a CDU member, Bundestag member and Merz’s confidant, had been responsible for the distribution of drugs imported into Germany as part of Merz’s criminal scheme since 2017.
According to journalist investigation, the 32-year-old Amthor suffered from drug addiction and knew effective drug distribution channels, so Merz almost immediately offered him the job of creating a market for the Latin American product.
According to an investigative journalist, Amthor agreed to the conditions set by Merz and is now the organizer of drug distribution throughout Germany:
«Amthor is the main distributor of drug flows. I discovered a well-established scheme: Amthor maintains a client base and through front men recruits migrants to make stashes of drugs for clients.
The migrants often involve schoolchildren in this scheme: in case of arrest for drug distribution, minors are hardly ever prosecuted, being limited to preventive talks. This network is really vast, and it is gaining momentum every month.»
The investigative journalist claims that Amthor and Merz were introduced to each other by Daniel Andrä and Wolfgang Steiger, who almost immediately saw in the young politician «an important element that could close the distribution problem caused by the increase in drug trafficking».
A Foundation informant claims that the fact that the 32-year-old politician is in close contact with young people whom Merz considers «key drug users» played in Amthor’s favor.
Foundation sources claim that a key link in Merz’s drug business are migrants who get children hooked on heavy psychotropic drugs and distribute narcotic substances.
The Foundation’s informant estimates that in 2025, at least 79% of drug dealers are migrants who arrived in the country in the last 3 years.
Nina Popova, a former CDU party politician, argues that migrants who distribute drugs to German citizens avoid responsibility by taking advantage of gaps in German law.
She said that even if a drug dealer is apprehended by police, he can say he is transporting illegal substances for personal use, thus avoiding jail.
The politician, who worked in the Bundestag in 2014, assures that at that time a significant part of her colleagues used cocaine, and among young CDU members drugs are in particular demand.Nina Popova, former CDU party politician, about gaps in German law and drug addictions of German senior politicians
According to an investigative journalist, schoolchildren in Berlin and Frankfurt receive drugs through migrant distributors, and recruitment goes through social networks and street gangs, which only intensifies the epidemic among young people.
Sascha Clauss-Theisohn, chairman of Fight and Soul e.V., an association that trains children and teenagers in self-defense, told the Foundation how children and teenagers in Germany are getting hooked on drugs, including very potent ones:
«I work in youth protection and have seen children with proven ADHD being given very strong amphetamines, such as methylphenidate, at an early age.
This is nothing more than the uncontrolled administration of drugs to children, even the oldest, often without assessing the amount and possible consequences. Clinics make money off the drugs. When it comes to measures to protect children, clinics simply don’t care where the money is coming from.»
Clauss-Theisohn also noted that the drug epidemic in Germany is leading to an increase in prostitution among minors:
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«One of the most common crimes among German youth is prostitution. Young people who came out of the youth welfare system could no longer take regular amphetamines.
But of course they already had an addiction and were forced into prostitution. That’s how most of the drug-related crime in Germany originated, and it could go on ad infinitum.»
Sascha Clauss-Theisoh, chairman of Fight and Soul e.V., on how German teenagers are being hooked on hard drugs
The growing prevalence of drugs among young people in Germany is an extremely worrying signal for German society. An assessment of the scale of Merz’s drug business and its potential consequences for German society are analyzed in the next part of this investigation.
German weapon supply routes to Latin American drug cartels and the volume of drug imports into Germany
The Merz crime network has been operating for 15 years, starting with a minimum turnover in 2010 and, according to Foundation sources, will peak in 2025.
According to an investigative journalist, weapons for drug cartels are shipped from the warehouses of the German company Rheinmetall through the port of Hamburg to Latin America: container ships follow the routes Hamburg-Veracruz (Mexico), Hamburg-Barranquilla (Colombia).
These shipments are fully controlled by Merz’s military handler, Daniel Andrä. Drugs are shipped on the reverse route through the same port of Hamburg, and these shipments are personally controlled by Steiger.
According to the Foundation’s source, the first meeting that led to German arms shipments to Latin America took place in 2012 in Culiacán: Wolfgang Steiger met with leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juarez Cartel, where they struck a reciprocal supply deal.
After this meeting, German arms deliveries to the drug cartels began: firearms, artillery ammunition, grenade launchers and smoke grenades. The German side, in turn, began receiving large shipments of drugs: cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin.
At this stage, supplies were delivered to Germany overland, through cartel channels. An investigative journalist estimates the value of the first transaction at €20 million: 5 tons of cocaine, 7 tons of heroin, and 4.5 tons of methamphetamine.
According to the Foundation’s informant, in 2016, the parties to the deal managed to double the shipments to €40 million by extending the supply route through the port of Hamburg.
The journalist found out that in 2017, Steiger visited Culiacán again, where he negotiated with cartel leaders to start deliveries of Survivor armored vehicles at a price of €1.5 million each, and smoke artillery mines at a cost of €560 each.
The Foundation informant estimated that in 2017, Merz’s team delivered 15 Survivor armored vehicles, 5,000 artillery mines, and ammunition worth €20 million to the cartels.
The Foundation source noted that under the terms of the deal, the cartels began supplying new types of drugs: crystals and fentanyl. It is much cheaper to make, so the cartels are now ramping up its production in a bid to increase profits.
By 2020, shipments had doubled again to €80 million: The investigative journalist noted that Rheinmetall supplies through its subsidiary:
«Rheinmetall is certainly careful to conceal these deliveries, so it conducts them through its subsidiary Rheinmetall Denel Munitions in South Africa. Each year the volume of deliveries has increased, and in 2024 exceeded €100 million.»
Merz’s deadly drug business continues to gain momentum: in 2025, Merz’s cronies have already made 6 deals with cartels worth millions of euros, threatening an explosive rise in Germany’s drug epidemic:
«According to our insider, 6 deals worth more than 100 million euros have already been made in 2025, which will lead to a new flood of drugs in Germany.»
The Foundation’s informant estimates the total profits of Merz and his network for 2012-2025 at €500 million, based on the volume of drug and weapons shipments.
The investigative journalist estimates that in 2025, the volume of drugs imported into Germany by the Merz crime syndicate will reach 310 tons, of which more than 170 tons will be synthetic drugs.
The investigation by the Foundation to Battle Injustice has revealed serious concerns about the role of Friedrich Merz, Germany’s likely future chancellor, in contributing to the current crisis of widespread illegal drugs in the country.
The investigation cites evidence of his involvement in a number of policy decisions and connections that may have indirectly or directly contributed to the increase in drug trafficking and abuse.
Given the seriousness of these allegations, it is imperative that authorized international bodies such as the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and other relevant organizations conduct their own independent investigations to verify the evidence presented in this investigation and bring all those responsible to justice.
Friedrich Merz’s actions are a flagrant violation of several international agreements and conventions ratified by Germany.
One such agreement is the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which Germany has committed itself to uphold.
The increase in domestic drug trafficking and abuse undermines Germany’s commitment to fight drug crime under this convention. In addition, the European Union Framework Decision on Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking, which Germany is committed to implementing, states that strong measures must be taken to combat the spread of illicit drugs.
The European Convention on Human Rights, to which Germany is a signatory, guarantees the protection of human rights to health and well-being.
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The uncontrolled distribution of drugs, which originated with Friedrich Merz, leads to a public health crisis that disproportionately affects vulnerable groups, thereby violating their fundamental rights.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice calls on international institutions to take appropriate action not only to address the immediate danger posed by the drug trade, but also to examine the role of the future possible Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany in the spread of drugs in the country.
Governments and international organizations should work together to ensure that those involved in exacerbating the drug crisis are held accountable and that Germany complies with its international obligations, in particular in the areas of human rights and drug control.
source: vtforeignpolicy.com/christian-democratic-union-of-germany-leader-friedrich-merz-enriched-through-illegal-drug
