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Drunken lads crash stolen truck into seven parked cars

Two teenagers who stole a truck from work went on a slow motion rampage with the vehicle, smashing up seven cars without even getting very far.

Published: 13 December 2008 11:48 CET

Drunken lads crash stolen truck into seven parked cars

The 16-year-olds went drinking before creating a trail of destruction among parked cars on Friday night in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, police said on Saturday.

In scenes hardly reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto, they first they smashed into two parked cars, completely writing them off, before then reversing into a third car so hard, it was catapulted into the air and turned over.

They then hit a fourth car which was parked in a row, smashing into it from behind so that it and the three in front of it all smashed into each other.

It is thought the damage caused could amount to at least €100,000. The only injury was to one of the boys, who was slightly hurt, police said.

The truck belonged to the roofing firm at which one of the boys was an apprentice.

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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