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Trash can masks luxury watch raid

Thieves used a trash container to hide their forced entry into a luxury jewellery store in Düsseldorf. They made off with tens of thousands of euros worth of watches.

Published: 2 July 2014 08:37 CEST

Trash can masks luxury watch raid

Photo: DPA

Police said they believed the two burglars had moved a trash container in front of the entrance to the jewellery store on the corner of Berliner Allee and Schadowstraße at around 12.30pm in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The bin acted as cover for the thieves, who then broke open the metal mesh protecting the door, said Bild newspaper. Undetected, the suspects then pried open the door itself.

Once inside, the two dark-clothed men bundled tens of thousands of euros worth of luxury watches into bags and fled the scene.

Düsseldorf police, who on Wednesday still had no concrete leads to go on, are seeking witnesses to the crime. Anyone who saw anything suspicious should call police on 02118700.

SEE ALSO: Jewellery shop raided by fake football 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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