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Police in eight cities raid premises of suspected Islamists

Police in eight cities across Germany and Belgium raided flats and club houses allegedly connected to an extreme Islamist group on Tuesday.

Published: 10 March 2009 16:26 CET

They are accused of illegally raising money for Islamist projects, the Munich police told German news agency DPA, but stressed the men were not thought to be directly connected with acts of terrorism.

It is a business case, a spokesman said. The seven individuals, who were not arrested, are suspected of having formed a criminal conspiracy to have fraudulently bid for grants and contributions, as well as having bought property, laundered money and forged documents. Several computers were confiscated.

The reason was, “to pursue a number of political-religious and ultimately Islamist aims,” a detective said.

The main suspect, a 41-year-old man from North Rhine-Westphalia, is said to have connections to a number of Islamist organisations including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Other suspects are said to have also cultivated links with such groups, while one is said to have collected donations for weapon purchases during the Bosnian war.

Business and club premises were raided in Munich, Garching, Bornheim, Cologne, Hamm, Kerpen, Berlin and locations in Belgium.

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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