Nigerian mafia, sexual slavery and voodoo rites: girl faces ‘Black Ax’ sect

The Palermo police in Sicily, southern Italy, arrested four Nigerians on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, accused of human trafficking, slavery, kidnapping, exploitation for prostitution and aiding illegal immigration.

The fact took place after the complaint of a minor of the aforementioned nationality who managed to escape from the mafia sect “Black Ax”.

“The victim had been kidnapped in her country of origin by a group of men belonging to the secret sect called Black Axe, from whom she managed to free herself thanks to the intercession of a compatriot, and after agreeing to go to Italy as a ‘slave’ of that group. For this reason, she was subjected to the voodoo rite during which she promised to return the 15,000 euros necessary to arrive illegally in the national territory, ”explains a statement from the Police.

Once in the capital of the Italian island, taking advantage of her state “of submission and under threat of death and violence, she was forced to prostitute herself” and hand over the money she obtained to pay off the debt. Finally, the young woman managed to escape and went to the pastor, who was threatened with death for “his aid work”.

The investigation “allowed the confirmation of the woman’s statements and the acquisition of important elements in relation to the crimes charged to the current detainees, as well as their membership in the secret sect, according to the police.

“Black Axe”, linked to human trafficking, internet fraud and murder, is famous for the extreme violence used by its members, as well as for its mafia structure. It is also one of the most dangerous organized crime groups in the world, with branches in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America.

The arrests required the collaboration of the police in Taranto, southeastern Italy, since three of the suspects were arrested outside Sicily, in the city of Apulia. All of them have gone to court.

Voodoo is more than witchcraft. In countries like Nigeria, for millions of women it is a religion through which they are dragged through thousands of kilometers of desert to reach Spain, where they are forced to engage in prostitution, contracting debts that they will hardly be able to pay.

Loveth, another victim, had her fingernails, toenails, hair, and hair cut off by a witch doctor and made incisions all over her body. Then he kept it in a bag “so that in case of not fulfilling the debt, make us pay it,” he says. She was a victim of trafficking until 2017, but is now a survivor.

Rocío Mora, general director of the Association for the Prevention, Reintegration and Care of Prostituted Women (Apramp), explained that “we confuse voodoo with a ritual and witchcraft”, but for them it is much more.

Through a ritual in which his mother was present, Loveth was made to swear that he was not going to run away, that he was not going to listen to the police; “Since I was little I was taught that, by swearing to the gods, they would protect us from evil,” she says.

“The first few times I was forced into prostitution, I was in so much pain that every time I went to the bathroom, I thought I was going to give birth. I was going every minute”, confesses Loveth in the short film of the campaign directed by the presenter and filmmaker Mabel Lozano, who considers that this medium is the best to raise awareness “of present and future consumers”: young people.

Voodoo is precisely what distinguishes these women from other European or South American victims of trafficking. That and the mafias.

“Perhaps they are the cruelest, most inhuman mafias,” estimates the chief inspector of the National Police Corps (CNP), José Nieto, because they have a “double criminal nuance”: they use the deception of a better life and the threat of magic. black.

With information from EFE

Source-larepublica.pe