The Nation Newspaper

Tag: German police

  • Police raid suspected traffickers who arrange fake marriages

    Police on Tuesday staged a massive raid against suspected human traffickers in the German capital Berlin who are believed to have arranged fake marriages for Vietnamese migrants.

    “We have arrested the three main suspects and are searching several flats,’’ a spokesman for the police said.

    Some 200 officers from the federal and state police forces were involved in the raids from 6. a.m. (0400 GMT), described by the police on Twitter as a “strike against human traffickers.”

    Some 20 flats were searched in eastern districts of Berlin and in the commuter towns of Ahrensfelde and Panketal in Brandenburg on the north-eastern outskirts of the city.

    Read Also; Police arrest 85 suspected cultists, robbers, drug traffickers

    “The members of the German-Vietnamese gang, which had 10 members at its core, are accused of arranging fake marriages between Vietnamese and German citizens.

    “The marriages were carried out in Denmark, after which the couple parted ways on return to Germany,’’ the police spokesman said.

    The Danish marriage, and with it the right to live in neighbouring EU member Germany, is believed to have cost the Vietnamese partner a five-figure sum.

    Police say they have evidence of 10 successful fake marriages and five fake paternity certificates.

    The three main suspects are two Vietnamese men aged between 35 and 57 and a 26-year-old German woman.

  • German police arrest Nigerians who marry for EU residence permits

    German police arrest Nigerians who marry for EU residence permits

    A ring of fraudsters who allegedly arranged sham marriages between Portuguese women and Nigerian men to obtain EU residence permits was busted on Tuesday, according to German police.

    At least 40 residences were searched in Berlin alone during the coordinated mass raids across Germany.

    Raids were also conducted in Potsdam, Frankfurt and the eastern town of Goerlitz.

    The federal police said there were at least 70 known cases so far with more expected.

    Related: Behind the mad rush of young Nigerians men for older foreign women

    In Berlin, police arrested four women between ages of 46 and 64, and one 50-year-old man who was said to be the head of the ring and had contacts in Portugal, helping them to recruit women from there.

    The Nigerian men paid up to US$15, 500 for the documents to the ring, which shared some of the money with the Portuguese women.

    Portuguese police aided in the investigation by prosecutors in Berlin, which had been ongoing since November 2016.

  • German police arrest teenager for ‘dismembering’ mother

    German police arrest teenager for ‘dismembering’ mother

    The police on Monday arrested a 17-year-old boy in connection with the murder and dismemberment of his mother in a village south-west of Berlin.

    The police said that the youth, who has not been named, is a repeat offender linked to the drug scene.

    He was arrested in the house he shared with his mother in Borkheide, a village of less than 300 residents, in the state of Brandenburg.

    The teen’s mother had been reported missing by a friend, who described her as socially withdrawn.

    The 58-year-old woman had not been seen for several days when police went to her home on Saturday to investigate.

    They found traces of blood in the house and on the surrounding property, and evidence of a fire in the garden.

    Officers eventually discovered bones and a woman’s torso, though the body has yet to be identified.

    The murder is thought to have taken place at some point after March 31.

  • Germany arrests two on terror charges

    Two men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning an attack on a shopping centre in Oberhausen near the Dutch border.

    The brothers, aged 31 and 28 and born in Kosovo, were detained early on Friday in Duisburg, the BBC reports.

    Germany is on high alert after Monday’s attack in Berlin, which left 12 dead.

    A Europe-wide manhunt continues for Anis Amri, the Tunisian man suspected of driving a lorry into the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market.

    Police said the Oberhausen attack had been intended to target the CentrO shopping centre.

    Officers dressed in civilian clothing had been sent to patrol the centre and a nearby Christmas market after a tip from intelligence services, police said in a statement.

    It is not yet known how advanced the preparations for the attack were, or if others were involved, the statement said.

    There is no indication so far that Friday’s arrests are linked to the Berlin attack.

    German officials have confirmed Anis Amri’s fingerprints were found inside the truck that was used to kill 12 people and wound 49 others in Berlin on Monday evening.

    His brother in Tunisia has urged him to give himself up to police.

    Breitscheidplatz market in Berlin reopened on Thursday, with dimmed lights and no music.

    Candles and flowers have been laid for the victims, who included at least six Germans, an Israeli tourist, an Italian woman and the truck’s Polish driver. Police have installed concrete barriers to prevent a repeat attack.

     

  • German police detain Algerian over Paris attacks

    German police officers have detained an Algerian man in a refugee reception centre in connection with the attacks in Paris, officials have said.

    The man, detained in the town of Arnsberg in western Germany, is being investigated on suspicion of having told Syrian refugees at the centre in recent days that fear and terror would be spread in the French capital.

    He is also alleged to have spoken about a bomb. The senior public prosecutor in Arnsberg, Werner Wolff, said checks were being made into whether the allegations were credible.

    “There is currently an investigation into whether the man is an accomplice or a confidant,” Reuters quoted Ralf Jaeger, Interior Minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, as saying on the matter.

    Jaeger added that there was no solid evidence at the moment that the attackers in Paris had a connection to North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

    “There is also no concrete evidence that attacks are planned in NRW or the (German) federal republic,” he said, adding that the situation was nonetheless “very serious.”

    The authorities had their eyes on some Salafi Islamists and German jihadists who had been in Syria and Iraq, said Jaeger.

    “At least 50 who have returned are known,” he added.