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Group therapy deaths caused by Ecstasy overdoses

Autopsies show that two men who died after a group therapy session in Berlin last month both suffered an overdose of Ecstasy, daily Berliner Morgenpost reported on Wednesday.

Published: 7 October 2009 15:35 CEST

Group therapy deaths caused by Ecstasy overdoses

Photo: DPA

On September 19, a psychotherapist offered 12 patients drugs for a group session in his Hermsdorf neighbourhood home. Nine patients accepted at least one of the two drugs – Ecstasy and ephedrine. But things went wrong and the two men aged 28 and 59 died. A third 55-year-old man fell into a coma.

According to Berliner Morgenpost he has now since awoken and his condition is improving.

The doctor was arrested after the deaths and remains in police custody on suspicion of two counts of bodily harm with fatal consequences and six counts of dangerous bodily harm.

A sign in front of the doctor’s office offered special psychiatric treatments including psychoactive substances. These reportedly included LSD and psychedelic mushrooms, which are illegal in Germany.

Berliner Morgenpost reported that members of the therapy group had been offered the drugs at previous sessions and knew what they were doing.

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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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