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German police bust human trafficking ring

Two Indians have been arrested in the state of Saxony-Anhalt after they were caught trafficking several hundred people into Germany, the state police in Magdeburg reported on Monday.

Published: 29 September 2008 17:52 CEST

German police bust human trafficking ring

A file photo of a German asylum office waiting room. Photo: DPA

The two men, who have been under investigation since August, were caught smuggling asylum seekers from the Indian state of Punjab into Germany.

Police believe the two men worked with accomplices in Dubai and India who allegedly forged travel documents and visas. The asylum seekers paid between €8,000 and €12,000 to fly out of New Delhi, Cairo or Dubai into Frankfurt or Prague.

The 43-year-old main suspect picked up the new arrivals and helped them apply for asylum under false identification, the state police reported. The man was picked up along with his 22-year-old accomplice in Halberstadt. There is also a warrant for the younger man’s arrest out in Italy.

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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