Prisoners of the Nigerian Mafia

Four years ago, Juliet left her home country Nigeria. Like so many other young women, the 23 year old couldn’t envision a future for herself at home and hoped for a better lifestyle in Europe. But during her odyssey through the Sahara and across the Mediterranean, she became involved with criminals who made her endure unspeakable horrors. And things didn’t improve when she arrived in Europe. She fell into the clutches of the Nigerian mafia, which forced her to work as a prostitute. David, who used to be part of the network himself but managed to leave and go underground, tells DW reporters about the brutality of the traffickers. According to experts, the Nigerian mafia is a rapidly growing criminal organization. It often does the dirty work for factions of the Italian Mafia, which is only too happy to retreat into the background. The town of Castel Volturno on the Mediterranean coast is an example. A report by Jan-Philipp Scholz and Johannes Meier.