© Agence France-Presse/Caroline Seidel/Germany OutNazi paraphernalia and weapons are on display at a press conference after they were seized by police during a raid on the right-extremist "Nationalen Widerstand Dortmund" on August 23, 2012 in Dortmund, western Germany
Police searched 146 premises, across 32 cities and towns in North-Rhine Westphalia, to collect evidence against the three neo-Nazi groups who recently found themselves on the wrong side of the law.
The regions interior minister, Ralf Jaeger, described the banned groups as "xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic," adding: "They employ fists and knives against their political opponents," Reuters cites him as saying.
Election posters of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) were among the materials seized, which Jaeger says highlights the groups' links to Germany's neo-Nazi movement.
While no arrests were made, Jaegar said evidence collected during the raids could be used in forthcoming efforts to add the NPD to the list of banned groups, believing they secretly support the country's more violent far-right militants.
"These groups are anti-foreigner, they are racist and they are anti-Semitic," Jaeger said at a news conference. "We will continue to crack down on these enemies of the state and tread on their black leather boots," he continued.
The NPD has deputies in two state assemblies though they are yet to clinch any seats in the federal parliament. While the NPD have taken a staunchly anti-immigrant line, they have avoided attempts to be labeled a neo-Nazi party, which would facilitate their ban.
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