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German police bust biker drug ring

Police have raided a major biker drug ring in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, confiscating several kilos of narcotics and a horde of weapons.

Published: 4 April 2008 17:08 CEST

Prosecutors in the town of Ravensburg on Friday announced that police in the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate searched 33 apartments and businesses on Thursday night. Among other illegal items, the raid turned up 1.6 kilos of marijuana and 1.1 kilos of amphetamines, an automatic pistol and several other firearms.

Some 24 people are now under investigation and four people aged 39 to 41 from Biberach in Baden-Württemberg have had warrants for their arrest issued.

Over a hundred police officers, including a commando unit, took part in the operation. Investigators believe some of the suspects hold important positions both in Germany and internationally in the as yet unnamed ‘rocker gangs’ involved.

German police swoop on gang of foreign dating scammers

The Black Axe gang was involved internationally in “multiple areas of criminal activity”, with a focus in Germany on romance scams and money-laundering, Bavarian police said in a statement.

The dating trick was a “modern form of marriage fraud”, police said.

“Using false identities, the fraudsters for example signalled their intention to marry and in the course of further contact repeatedly demand money under various pretexts,” police said.

The money was subsequently transferred to Black Axe in Nigeria “via financial agents”, authorities said.

In the process, the gang used a “commodity-based money laundering” scheme where products, often with a seeming “charitable purpose” were bought and delivered to Nigeria.

Some 450 cases of romance scamming had been reported in the region of Bavaria in 2023 alone, with the damages rising to 5.3 million euros ($5.7 million), police said.

The suspects, who all held Nigerian citizenship and were aged between 29 and 53, were arrested in nationwide raids on Tuesday.

Law enforcement swooped on 19 properties, including both homes and asylum shelters, police said.

The Black Axe gang had “strict hierarchical structures under leadership in Nigeria” operating different territorial units, police said.

The group had a “significant influence” on politics and public administrations, in particular in Nigeria.

Globally, the gang’s main areas of operation were “human-trafficking, fraud, money-laundering, prostitution and drug-trafficking”.

Black Axe operated under the cover of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, an ostensibly charitable organisation used as “camouflage” for the gang’s structures.

The action against Black Axe was the first of its kind in Germany, police said.

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