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Police call for strict hooligan stadium ban

In order to stem a dramatic increase in hooliganism in Germany, the country's national police union (GdP) on Thursday appealed to a federal court to allow violent football fans to be banned from stadiums even if they don't have a criminal conviction.

Published: 29 October 2009 09:00 CET

Police call for strict hooligan stadium ban

Hooligans in Dresden. Photo: DPA

The measure is necessary for the prevention of violence at matches, GdP leader Konrad Freiberg told daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Thursday.

On Friday, the court will address the case of a Bayern Munich fan who was banned from German stadiums for two years, even though the criminal investigation against him was suspended for lack of evidence. The man denies taking part in rioting, but Freiberg said the ban was “acceptable” and within the rights of the stadium owner.

Football fan violence is on the rise in Germany, with thousands of police on duty each weekend to prevent only the worst incidences at all league levels, Freiberg told the paper. Police are now forced to travel to small towns that are hardly visible on maps, he added.

Hooligans are also specifically targeting police officers with stones, rubbish bins, tear gas and smoke grenades, he said.

Alcohol is almost always a factor in fan violence, Freiburg told the paper, emphasising earlier demands to reduce availability on regional trains used by fans.

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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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