North Africans are turning Berlin’s notorious “Kotti” area into a no-go zone, according to a veteran drug dealer.

One of the most notorious areas in all of Berlin for drug dealing and petty thefts is the area outside the Kottbusser Tor, nicknamed the “kotti.”Gangs of criminals have long used the area, which is close to various nightclubs, to peddle drugs to party goers and steal the possessions of those too drunk to fight back.

Breitbart London reported on the Kotti back in February and told how it had become a centre for migrant gangs. The crime statistics in the area leapt from 336 cases in 2014 to 775 in 2015 and many expect 2016 to increase even further. Kebab sellers described how migrants set upon people and stole their belongings but now even the local drug dealers are saying migrants have become a problem and might be turning the area into a no-go zone.

A long-time established drug dealer named ‘Mustafa’ opened up about his experiences with the new migrants to German weekly Junge Freiheit.

Mustafa, who is now middle aged and deals hashish, has been dealing drugs in the area of the Kotti since he was only 14-years-old. He came to Germany as an asylum seeker with his parents from the Palestinian Territories when he was ten.

“We are the ones who are always there,” he told the paper saying that he had seen a huge change in the last year. The 48-year-old told the paper that all the new migrants were bad for business for the existing dealers and said, “if there are too many dealers here, they argue over customers. This theatre attracts the police.”

“The North Africans are the problem, they are different,” Mustafa complained that the new arrivals from Tunisia, Morroco and Algeria were scaring people away from the area because they often travelled in large groups. He called the North Africans cowardly because they hang around in gangs picking on whichever unfortunate passer-by comes near them, sexually abusing girls or robbing men and women.

According to the veteran of the Kotti the police have somewhat of an unwritten code when it comes to the drug dealers. The police will routinely stop and frisk the dealers and confiscate any drugs they find but Mustafa says that people rarely get arrested and only when the cops have it out for them.

The Mayor of the area Monika Hermann of the Green Party, says she wants to curb the drug dealing that occurs, not just from street dealers but also out of the back doors of kebab stands and coffee shops. She said that the situation was difficult and in the end it’s a police matter.

The mayor of Berlin recently hired 360 new officers to deal with the growing problem though there is little sign of them in Kotti yet.