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Neo-Nazi to face child sex abuse charges

Far-right extremist and former informant for the security services Tino Brandt will face charges of serious sexual abuse of children.

Published: 13 November 2014 16:34 CET

Neo-Nazi to face child sex abuse charges

File photo of TIno Brandt being arrested in 1995. Photo: DPA

State prosecutors in Gera, Thuringia, said that Brandt, 39, would answer 157 charges for acts that took place between 2011 and 2014.

“This means that he himself had sexual contact with children and young people,” a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said.

Brandt is accused of having supplied minors to adults for sex in exchange for money in 45 cases.

As leader of the “Thuringia Homeland Defence” group, Brandt had contact with the National Socialist Underground members Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe before they began their serial murders.

News of the charges against Brandt came just one day after his handler from the Office for Constitutional Protection (Verfassungsschutz) had given evidence at Zschäpe's trial.

Prosecutors said that there was no connection to his political opinions in the present charges.

They added that Brandt, who has been in custody since June during the investigation, had co-operated with the investigation and admitted to some of the allegations.

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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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