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CRIME

VIDEO: Hamburg district ‘pees back’ at drunks

Hamburg's St. Pauli district welcomes 20 million loud, messy and heavy-drinking party guests every year. Now residents have discovered a method to fight back against public urination.

VIDEO: Hamburg district 'pees back' at drunks
A local man explains the community's action against "Wildpinkler". Photo: Screenshot

"It was a real annoyance that was growing and growing," St Pauli Interest Community (IG St Pauli) board member and owner of several local bars Uwe Christiansen told The Local. "We wanted to bring people to reason."

While researching ways to discourage “Wildpinkler” – “free pee-ers” – annoyed members of IG St Pauli came across a hydrophobic paint which literally makes water droplets bounce off.

That means that anyone hoping to relieve themselves in unorthodox locations around the neighbourhood must reckon with the risk of a soaking for their shoes and trousers.

Now there are signs reading “Don't pee here! We'll pee back,” on specially-treated walls around the area.

Although the paint has only been in place for a few days, Christiansen said that local people welcomed the new move.

"I've seen in Facebook and the local newspapers that the reactions were very positive. People were just tired of the peeing on walls, home entrances and playgrounds," Christiansen said.

The group recommends that partygoers take extra care, as not all the walls they've painted are marked with signs.

“Watch out! From now on, it's Peeback time,” said Julia Staron of IG St Pauli in the group's video.

 

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CRIME

German police swoop on gang of foreign dating scammers

German police said Wednesday they had arrested 11 suspected members of a Nigerian mafia group behind a large-scale dating scam.

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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