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CRIME

Shots fired in second Berlin bank robbery attempt in days

German police are searching for a group of men who attempted to rob a Berlin bank in broad daylight on Tuesday, the second such bid the capital has seen in days.

Shots fired in second Berlin bank robbery attempt in days
Police in Wilmersdorf, Berlin, on Tuesday. Photo: DPA

Shots were fired after the men attempted to drive into a local bank branch at a square in Wilmersdorf, an upmarket, central district in the west of Berlin, at around 9.30am, Berlin police said on Twitter.

The would-be robbers then set fire to their vehicle before fleeing.

A security guard who was injured while confronting the men was later taken to hospital, police said.

It remains unclear whether the thieves managed to steal anything.

The same bank was the scene of a similar incident in mid-June, in which thieves reportedly made off with around half a million euros (around $600 million) after holding up a money transporter.

Tuesday's robbery attempt also came just five days after a similar bid at a bank branch in Neukölln, another central district of Berlin.

On Friday, 12 people were injured as thieves stormed a bank branch and sprayed pepper spray into the air, before fleeing empty-handed.

Police said they were investigating possible links between the three incidents.

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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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