Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Agency (BKA) has claimed that recently-arrived migrants are forming their own criminal clan gangs and are pressuring existing Arab and Lebanese gang families.

Holger Münch, head of the BKA, said that migrants were involved in at least a third of the cases involving Arab-linked clan families but said that the Syrians and Iraqis had not yet formed formal criminal networks, Deutsche Welle reports.

The BKA head told broadcaster ARD that authorities should watch developments closely and not repeat prior mistakes that have led to the rising power of Lebanese migrant gangs in parts of the country.

In March, Islamic and migration researcher Ralph Ghadban blamed the ideology of multiculturalism for the rise of Arab clan gangs saying: “The attitude of political correctness, which suppresses free opinions, prevents a factual confrontation with topics, and leaves it to the radicals.”

Researcher Blames Multiculturalism for Rise of Arab Clan Gangs in Germany https://t.co/2P3E6grIzV — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 10, 2019

The existing Arab clans, particularly in Berlin, have become more powerful over the years, with members going as far as intimidating police officers and using tactics including spreading rumours of sexual encounters with prostitutes against them to silence officers.

Frank Richter, the chief of police in Essen, also spoke to ARD and said that the newcomers, who had previously worked in menial jobs such as drug couriers, were now becoming more competitive and could take over the local drug trade.

Richter also highlighted that some of the newly-arrived migrants might have “combat experience” from the conflicts in the Middle East.

A 2017 report from police in the region of Schleswig-Holstein said that newly arrived migrants had already begun to take over the drug trade and linked several mass brawls involving asylum seekers to drug disputes.

Authorities have also become concerned with the infiltration of the police by Arab clans in recent years with Berlin politicians calling a special meeting in 2017 to address the issue.