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Audi blasts past French speed trap at 300 kph

French police have arrested a man caught driving a German-registered sports car so fast that their speed trap couldn't clock the estimated 300 kilometres (186 miles) per hour he was travelling.

Published: 15 March 2010 12:11 CET

Audi blasts past French speed trap at 300 kph

A file photo of the Audi R8. Photo: DPA

The young man, who had apparently borrowed the Audi R8 speedster from a friend, was travelling well above 250 kilometres per hour when he blew past speed monitors in northern France, French daily Le Parisien reported on Sunday.

The speed limit on the road was 130 kilometres per hour, but officials believe the Frenchman, who was found to have consumed cannabis after being stopped by police, may have been driving as fast as a dizzying 300 kilometres per hour.

The speed demon won’t be allowed to drive his friend’s car back to Germany any time soon, since he is scheduled to face French court proceedings.

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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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