The men, who were arrested in Palermo and Taranto in the early hours of Tuesday, allegedly belong to the feared Black Axe, a cult-like criminal gang that emerged in the 1970s at the University of Benin.....
Investigators in Palermo who led the operation said the woman, who is also Nigerian, was forced into prostitution after taking part in an occult ritual bound up with traditional spiritual beliefs, known as juju, which bond victims to their traffickers and to any debts they will incur.
“The suspects were charged with slavery, human trafficking, kidnapping and pandering [recruiting prostitutes],” the police said.
The woman, whom investigators said was convinced by a Pentecostal cleric to report her captors to police, had been imprisoned, raped, blackmailed and forced into prostitution to pay a debt of about €15,000 (£12,500).
Before she left Nigeria, like many other victims of sx trafficking, the woman had been made to undergo a traditional oath-taking ceremony involving complicated and frightening rituals often using the women’s blood, hair and clothing. Those carrying out the ritual, which has been found to have a profound psychological impact on victims, make it clear that failure to pay off those debts will result in terrible things happening to the woman and her family.
The abuse of religious and cultural belief systems in Nigeria has proved a deadly and highly effective control mechanism for traffickers recruiting women destined for the sex trade in Europe. A hugely profitable and well-organised criminal industry has been operating between Italy and Nigeria for more than two decades but the UN’s International Organization for Migration says it has seen a rise in the number of potential sex-trafficking victims arriving in Italy by sea in the past few years, lured by the promise of work in the country.
Last year, Italian police arrested 30 people suspected of belonging to the Nigerian Black Axe mafia, which has been operating in many regions of the country, among them its suspected 35-year-old leader in Italy.
from The Guardian.com
WOW.. so they travelled out of Nigeria still identifying themselves as cult members?
They've exported cultism abroad too, let them face the music.
ReplyDeleteThey should report them after they serve their sentence. That's how they will rubbish Nigeria's image, making it difficult for genuine Nigerians to be employed and not be discriminated against in Italy.
DeleteHmmmmm!!!
ReplyDeleteImagine...
ReplyDeleteNice one ndi eke.
Serves them right. I hope they get the maximum penalty.
ReplyDeleteOnly God knows the number of people they killed before they left Nigeria.
Very good,I watched the video and I could only smh.
ReplyDeleteLet me go and look for the video. I want to check something🧐
DeleteStupid people
ReplyDeleteNa just to make their victims fear and also to mark territory.
ReplyDeleteLovelace