The Italian police have arrested four suspected members of a Nigerian cultist group identified as Black Axe, for slavery, human trafficking, kidnapping and recruiting prostitutes.
They have been linked with a broad chain of exploitation that cut across Africa and Europe.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Italian police launched operations in the Sicilian regional capital Palermo and on mainland Italy in the Puglian regional capital Taranto.
The police were acting on information from a Nigerian migrant who said she had been forced into prostitution by the group.
According to the Italian news agency (AGI), the four suspects are charged with slavery, human trafficking, kidnapping, profiting from prostitution and employing mafia methods.
Under Italian law, employing mafia methods generally means that those charged have used intimidation and threats to exploit their victims.
One of the suspects was taken into custody in Palermo.
The other three were found to be living in Taranto, where they were also taken into pre-trial custody.
Nigerian woman who accused the suspects was supported by a Pentecostal preacher, also from Nigeria.
According to AGI, the woman turned to the preacher for help after being forced to work as a prostitute in Italy.
According to the woman’s statement, she underwent a Juju or traditional magic ceremony in Nigeria before being trafficked to Italy.
The ceremony is commonly used to make sure that women who hope to migrate will not tell anyone, most of all the police or authorities, about what they are forced to undergo so that they can work, often as prostitutes to pay back the debts they are told they incurred for their journey.
Those who undergo such a ceremony often swear oaths with their own blood or hair.
If they break their oath of silence, they are told either they or their family members will die or be seriously injured.
The woman said she was first kidnapped by a group of Black Axe members in Nigeria.
She escaped with the help of a fellow Nigerian but to pay him back, she was asked to travel to Italy as a slave.
During the ceremony, she promised to pay €15,000 for her journey.
Once the woman arrived in Palermo, under the threat of death and violence reports AGI, the woman was forced to work as a prostitute.
The money she earned was then taken to repay the debt.
