The wholesale market – an ideal place to launder money from drug and arms deals. The sales on the market are virtually uncontrollable and unverifiable, so it is little wonder that the police carry out surveillance operations and raids on regular bases. But the Cologne wholesale market offers much more than that. With billions in sales, it is one of the largest fruit and vegetable markets in Germany. Produce from all over the world is being handled, deposited and even being partially processed in small factories.
Also, the fortune tellers, the asylum seekers who live just around the corner in containers and collect food scraps, and night owls who are having their last drink in the early morning hours in the numerous pubs and restaurants are all part of the market. Life here is quite colorful…