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Police arrest brothers in KaDeWe jewellery heist investigation

More than two weeks after the sensational jewellery robbery at Germany’s most famous department store, the KaDeWe in Berlin, police arrested two suspects in the state of Lower Saxony on Wednesday.

Published: 11 February 2009 16:36 CET

Police arrest brothers in KaDeWe jewellery heist investigation

Photo: DPA

“The two 27-year-old brothers are strongly suspected of taking part in the January 25 robbery of the luxury department store,” a Berlin police department statement said.

The men were picked up by a mobile commando team of Berlin police in the town of Rotenburg. A search also revealed evidence that still needs to be reviewed, police said.

“We have had more than 70 tips from the public,” the statement said. “The investigation with police and the state prosecutor’s office is ongoing.”

In what has been described as one of the most spectacular heists in post-war German history, thieves used a ladder to climb onto a projecting roof on the Ansbacherstrasse side of the grand old store. They relieved the massive shopping paradise of €6 million in jewellery and luxury watches.

CCTV evidence suggests that three masked men then took their loot in two stages, using the projecting roof to store the valuables while they returned to get more. Police are still trying to work out why no alarms were triggered during the robbery.

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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