Wednesday, April 24, 2024 -German Police have arrested 11 Nigerian nationals suspected to be members of a Black Axe group behind a large-scale dating scam and money laundering.
The Bavarian police in a statement on Wednesday,
April 24, 2024, said that the gang was involved internationally in “multiple
areas of criminal activity” with a focus in Germany on dating scams and money laundering.
The police said the dating trick was a “modern form of
marriage fraud”, adding that “Using false identities, the fraudsters for
example signaled their intention to marry and in the course of further contact
repeatedly demand money under various pretexts,"
The police further said that the money was subsequently
transferred to Black Axe in Nigeria “via financial agents.”
According to the authorities, 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.
Police added that 450 cases of dating and
love scams were reported in the Bavaria region in 2023 with the damages rising
to 5.3 million euros ($ 5.7 million).
The police said that the suspects, who all
held Nigerian citizenship and were aged between 29 and 53, were arrested in
nationwide raids on Tuesday, explaining that law enforcement agents swooped on
19 properties, including both homes and asylum shelters.
The police added that the Black Axe gang
had “strict hierarchical structures under leadership in Nigeria” operating
different territorial units, stressing that the group had a “significant
influence” on politics and public administrations, in particular in Nigeria.
It was said that globally, the gang’s main
areas of operation were “human trafficking, fraud, money-laundering,
prostitution and drug trafficking”.
The police said that the action against Black Axe was the first of its kind in Germany.
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