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Man dies after gangland stabbing attack

German police have arrested seven men after a gangland fight left one man stabbed to death and his brother seriously injured in hospital.

Published: 26 December 2012 13:32 CET

Man dies after gangland stabbing attack

Photo: DPA

Police described the fight in Esslingen, near Stuttgart, on Friday night as an attack by a biker-type gang of around 20 people. A 22-year-old man was killed after being stabbed several times, while his 21-year-old brother was seriously hurt and on Wednesday was still in hospital. Four others were seriously injured and five more slightly hurt.

A 23-year-old from the Esslingen area was arrested on Sunday while his 20-year-old brother reported to the police on the same evening after consulting a lawyer.

Two more men aged 21 and 23 were arrested on Monday. These four were on Wednesday being held in investigative custody and are expected to be charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Three other men were also arrested.

DAPD/The Local/hc

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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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