More than 900 police officers are searching homes and clubhouses of suspected neo-Nazis in a crackdown in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Three organizations have been banned.
German media reported Thursday that some 120 buildings were searched in the raids in Dortmund, Aachen, Dueren and Heinsberg.
Dortmund police spokesman Wolfgang Wieland tells n-tv that authorities found far-right propaganda material; spray paint and other items in the raids, conducted to collect evidence after the state interior ministry banned the three local neo-Nazi organizations.
State Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger says the crackdown has "ripped a big hole in the neo-Nazi network."
The state has seen a rise in far-right crimes
this year, and had already conducted widespread raids in April and May.