An Italian court yesterday, July 22, sentenced three members of a
Nigerian crime gang in Palermo, Sicily, to prison for various crimes
including attempted murder.
Prosecutors said the three Nigerians brought to Palermo the practices of
the “Black Axe” cult, which Nigerian police said carried out ritual
murders, mutilation and rape in the early 1990s.
In Sicily, they used mafia techniques in carrying out
attempted murder, armed robbery, bodily harm, prostitution, extortion
and drug-dealing, and answered to Italy’s most storied mafia
organisation, the Cosa Nostra, as if they were its subjects, prosecutors
said. State prosecutors in Palermo say the mafia brings in drugs and
the Nigerians distribute the among both Italian and African clients.
The court’s verdict, reached on Wednesday, July 20 and made available on
Friday, handed down sentences of 12 years and four months to the gang’s
boss and just over 10 years each to two others.
The group is believed to have attacked two people with bottles and axes
late one night in January 2014 in Palermo’s Ballaro street market, where
police later found the victims with gashed foreheads.
The Black Axe was among several secret societies that took hold in
Nigerian universities in the 1990s, allegedly attacking people on campus
with guns and knives, raping women who refused to pay protection money
and engaging in blood-drinking rituals.
Prostitution is thought to be one of the most profitable businesses for the Nigerian gangs.
According to police data, 90% of prostitutes in Palermo come from Nigeria.
Source: Reuters