German police say they have arrested 11 suspected members of a Nigerian mafia group behind a large-scale dating scam. 

According to a Bavarian police statement today, the Black Axe gang, who all held Nigerian citizenship and aged between 29 and 53, was involved internationally in “multiple areas of criminal activity”, with a focus in Germany on romance scams and money-laundering, 

Police said the dating trick was a “modern form of marriage fraud, using false identities, and repeatedly demand money under various pretexts”. 

Police said 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).