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Brickbat: Sticky Fingers

20 October 2026 at 09:00
Fairfax County, Virginia, Police uniform | Fairfax County Police Department

Fairfax County, Virginia, police officer Scott Abram was charged with two counts of misdemeanor shoplifting for stealing merchandise from two Target stores. Police say that while using the self-checkout at a Target in Burke, Abram scanned a cheaper item's barcode to pay less for another item, then left the store with both products despite only paying for one. Abram was in uniform and on duty at the time. Police say he had committed a similar theft at a Target in Springfield the day before, while off duty. A 23-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police Department, Abram chose to retire rather than face termination. Each charge is a misdemeanor that can carry up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine if convicted.

The post Brickbat: Sticky Fingers appeared first on Reason Magazine.

The ‘Finger cutter’ and the ‘Brazilian Escobar’: the men accused of bringing cocaine cartels to Europe

A Belgian criminal organisation’s links with a Brazilian cocaine gang have been the focus of a major trial in Brussels, where smuggling links have been alleged between European players and the drug cartels of Latin America

In the early hours of 7 September, a convoy of heavily armed police swept through the sleeping streets of central Brussels towards the Haren district, on the city’s north-eastern outskirts. They made their way to 22 Avenue du Bourget, a militarised bunker-like complex that was the former headquarters of Nato.

The modernist complex, with its austere and functional architecture, was hastily built in 1967 and houses the Justitia courtroom, where Belgium’s federal trials are now held. It was here that the perpetrators and accomplices of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks and the 2016 Brussels attacks were tried in 2022.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Belga/AFP/Getty Images/AP/Europol

© Composite: Guardian Design/Belga/AFP/Getty Images/AP/Europol

© Composite: Guardian Design/Belga/AFP/Getty Images/AP/Europol

Ukraine opens its first war-crime case against a ship captain for carrying off 54,000 tons of its stolen grain

19 October 2026 at 16:06

Ukraine has opened its first war-crime case against a ship captain for carrying off its stolen grain. Source: SBU

Ukraine has opened its first war-crime case against a ship captain for carrying off its stolen grain. Ukraine’s Security Service and Prosecutor General’s Office have charged the captain of the cargo ship Matros Pozynich with illegally shipping more than 54,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat that Russian forces stole from occupied territory, the Security Service said on Telegram.

Russia has looted grain across the Ukrainian land it occupies and sold it abroad as its own, a trade Ukrainian intelligence puts at more than 2 million tons in 2025 alone. The case against the Matros Pozynich captain is the first time Kyiv has classified a ship captain’s role in that trade as a war crime, prosecutors said.

The captain, a Russian citizen, twice sailed wheat from occupied Sevastopol in Crimea to the Syrian port of Latakia in 2022 and 2023, according to the Security Service. The first shipment of more than 27,000 tons left Crimea in 2022, and another 27,000-plus tons followed in January 2023.

A crime ordered from the top, investigators say

The shipments were no freelance smuggling run. The grain was removed on the decision of the Russian state’s top political leadership, the Security Service stated, in breach of the Geneva Conventions, which forbid pillaging property in occupied territory.

To hide the voyages, the captain periodically switched off the ship’s automatic identification system and transmitted false coordinates, investigators found. He was notified of suspicion in absentia under two articles of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, including the violations of the laws and customs of war. The service said it is working to identify others in the scheme.

One ship in a fleet that feeds the war

The vessel is a single thread in a much larger theft. Russia has taken roughly 15 million tons of Ukrainian grain from occupied territory between 2022 and August 2025 and earned at least $1 billion from it, money that helps fund the war.

Much of it moves through Russian-controlled ports such as Sevastopol, often relabeled as Russian produce or passed between ships at sea to hide its Ukrainian origin. Buyers have included Syria, Egypt, Türkiye, Lebanon, and others, though Egypt has since pledged to stop accepting grain tied to occupied territories.

Adele Spitzeder's Banking Swindle

19 October 2026 at 15:46

In 19th-century Munich, a woman with no formal banking experience began promising ordinary people extraordinary returns on their savings. Workers, servants, craftsmen and farmers flocked to her door, carrying the money they had spent years accumulating. Some mortgaged their homes or sold their land to take advantage of her generosity. For a time, the money flowed so freely that her business appeared almost invincible.

The woman was Adele Spitzeder, a former actress who became one of the most notorious financial swindlers in 19th-century Germany. Her private banking enterprise, popularly known as the Dachauer Bank, promised returns of as much as 10 per cent a month. But behind the apparent prosperity lay a simple deception: much of the money paid to earlier investors came not from profitable investments, but from the deposits of newcomers.


© Amusing Planet, 2026

$25,000 Lamb Goes Missing from Australian Farm

19 October 2026 at 09:16
A rare newborn lamb, valued at up to $25,000, has gone missing from a farm in the Adelaide Hills, Australia. The owners suspect the animal may have been stolen. This is reported by ABC. Veterinarian and farm owner Madeleine Babos stated that the lamb was born last week but disappeared a few days later. She […]

Five Arrested in €114 Million Smartphone VAT Fraud Investigation Across Europe

19 October 2026 at 07:13

Five people have been arrested in Cyprus, Germany and Italy as part of a European investigation into an alleged €114 million VAT fraud operation involving the cross-border smartphone trade.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) announced on 16th October that three suspects had been detained in Cyprus, one in Germany and one in Italy following an investigation coordinated by its Munich office.

Investigators believe the suspects established and controlled a network of companies designed to exploit the tax treatment of goods traded between EU member states.

The alleged operation involved smartphone transactions through businesses and so-called missing traders operating in Germany, Albania and Sweden. Prosecutors estimate that the activities caused VAT losses of approximately €80 million in Sweden and €34 million in Germany.

According to the official announcement of the arrests, the operation forms part of a wider investigation known as Midas, which is examining organised cross-border tax fraud.

Searches across several countries

The arrests were accompanied by searches and seizures in Cyprus, Greece and Italy, conducted with the assistance of national police, financial investigators and tax authorities.

Prosecutors said 12 searches had been carried out at premises connected with the suspects and companies under investigation.

Assets of up to €80,000 were frozen, while investigators also seized or took action against bank accounts, vehicles and property.

The operation involved cooperation between Germany’s tax authorities, Cyprus’s financial intelligence and cybercrime units, the Greek financial police and Italy’s Guardia di Finanza.

The suspects are believed to have played leading roles in organising and controlling the alleged scheme, although prosecutors have not publicly established their individual criminal responsibility.

The investigation remains subject to proceedings before the competent German courts. All suspects are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

How the alleged fraud operated

The case concerns a form of tax evasion known as missing-trader intra-community fraud, commonly described as carousel VAT fraud.

Under the EU’s VAT system, qualifying business-to-business transactions involving goods transported between member states are generally exempt from VAT in the country of dispatch.

The purchaser accounts for VAT under the rules applicable in the destination country, while subsequent domestic sales normally involve VAT being charged to the buyer.

Fraudsters can exploit those arrangements by establishing companies that purchase goods through cross-border transactions before reselling them domestically.

A missing trader collects VAT from the purchaser but fails to remit it to the relevant tax authority. Other companies in the transaction chain may then seek deductions or refunds.

The same goods can pass through several businesses and, in some arrangements, move repeatedly between countries, allowing the fraud to be repeated.

Smartphones and electronic equipment are particularly attractive because they are relatively expensive, easily transported and can be traded in large volumes.

The complexity of the arrangements makes investigations difficult when businesses are established in several jurisdictions and transactions move rapidly between companies.

A wider European problem

The latest arrests follow another substantial VAT fraud operation announced earlier this month.

On 7th October, the EPPO reported that 62 suspects had been detained in a separate investigation involving alleged losses of at least €410 million.

That operation, known as Hermes, involved searches across eight countries and allegations concerning the sale of mobile phones and other electronic devices.

Although separate from Midas, the investigation illustrates the scale and organisation of suspected VAT fraud involving internationally traded consumer electronics.

According to the EPPO‘s 2025 annual report, prosecutors were handling 3,602 active investigations at the end of last year, with estimated potential damage exceeding €67 billion.

Of that amount, more than €45 billion related to suspected VAT and customs fraud.

Those figures concern estimated losses under investigation, rather than sums established by final court judgments or amounts that have already been recovered.

Protecting European tax revenues

The financial consequences extend beyond the immediate losses attributed to individual schemes.

VAT is a major source of revenue for national governments and forms part of the system used to calculate certain contributions to the EU budget.

Fraudulent transactions can also distort competition by allowing dishonest operators to offer prices that legitimate businesses cannot match.

The Commission’s 2025 VAT gap report estimated that EU countries failed to collect approximately €128 billion in expected VAT revenue in 2023.

That broader figure includes losses arising from several causes, including administrative errors and insolvency, and cannot be attributed entirely to criminal fraud.

The latest arrests also demonstrate the importance of cross-border investigative cooperation when suspected financial offences involve companies, transactions and assets located in different countries.

In the Midas investigation, prosecutors must now establish the precise roles of the suspects, prove the alleged transactions and determine whether criminal proceedings can result in convictions and financial recovery.

The arrests represent another stage in the investigation, not a judicial finding that the alleged €114 million fraud has been proved.

O.J. Simpson, a Secret Informant and a Decades-Old Mystery

18 October 2026 at 12:22
An “extremely reliable” informant told authorities about the missing murder weapon, according to newly unsealed records. The informant’s brother told The Times his sibling was at the crime scene.

© Sam Mircovich/Reuters

During his 1995 double-murder trial, O.J. Simpson wore the gloves found at the crime scene and his home.

America Abandoned Public Executions for a Good Reason

16 October 2026 at 20:43
An illustration of Donald Trump and Nidal Hasan | Samuel Corum-Pool via CNP/CNP / Polaris/Samuel Corum-Pool via CNP/CNP / Polaris/Newscom

President Donald Trump on Thursday called off plans to livestream the December 3 military execution of Nidal Hasan after the announcement generated widespread disgust.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week that the U.S. government would livestream the firing-squad execution of Hasan, a former Army major who shot and killed 13 people at the Fort Hood Army base in 2009. A court-martial jury sentenced Hasan to death in 2013.

It would have been the first public execution in the United States since a hanging in Missouri in 1937, though the last well-known public execution occurred a year earlier in Kentucky. Rainey Bethea, a black man, was hanged before a crowd of roughly 20,000 people in Owensboro. Kentucky became the last state to outlaw public executions two years later.

The plan to livestream Hasan's execution drew comparisons to the Taliban. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called it "a barbaric promotion of a culture of death." Writing at The Lamp, an orthodox Catholic journal, Matthew Walther noted that it would be the "first ever government-sanctioned snuff film in American history."

However, Trump and Hegseth didn't trip over just liberal and religious pieties, but a deep-rooted American aversion to bloody displays of state power that goes back to the colonial era.

Lynn Novick, the director of Ken Burns' upcoming PBS documentary series Crime and Punishment in America, tells Reason that public executions "haven't been a regular part of American life since the Colonial time in the early years of the Republic, and there's really good reasons for that."

One of American colonists' many complaints about oppressive British rule was England's expansive criminal code, known derisively as the "bloody code" because it contained more than 200 capital crimes.

"In Colonial America, [an execution] was an everyday occurrence," Novick says. "There were executions all the time, and one of our scholars told us that most people would have seen someone executed in their lifetime."

Excessive capital punishment also ran contrary to emerging theories by leading Enlightenment thinkers that punishment should be proportional to the crime and not driven by revenge or bloodlust.

Perhaps more importantly, public executions were disorderly affairs that, rather than reinforce the power of the state, inflamed the passions of the mob to a dangerous degree. "In many cases, crowds would become very boisterous, riotous, angry, excited," Novick says. "There were sometimes violent outbursts at these events."

As a result, many of the Founding Fathers saw frequent public executions as disruptive to the fragile social order. The early American republic's move away from sanguinary spectacle was driven by a desire to create a stable, virtuous citizenry and sever itself from the European continent's tradition of public torture and execution.

As Reason described in a recent cover story, the result of this was the invention of the American penitentiary in the early 1800s, which was sold as a humane and rehabilitative replacement for the whipping post and gallows.

States transitioned from public to private hangings behind their newly built prison walls in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before switching to the use of the electric chair. This was not done out of entirely humanitarian concerns, especially in the South, where public executions often became quasi-religious ceremonies, with the condemned declaring their ultimate victory over death (and the state) through Jesus Christ.

"Executions had contested meanings," Michael Ayers Trotti wrote in The End of Public Execution. "They were moments of justice, of state power; but they were also moments of religion, exceptional moments that transcended normal life."

The main reason that public executions disappeared over the long term, though, is obvious to anyone who's not a sociopath: It's weird and dehumanizing to gather in a crowd to watch someone else be killed, to participate in the government's promotion of its power to take a human life.

Rachel Abbott, who witnessed Bethea's 1936 hanging when she was 5 years old, told WKU Public Radio in 2016 that she had nightmares about it years later.

"I remember it well, but I didn't want to," she said. "I tried to get away from it because it was hurting me so bad. I started having me nightmares after I was older. It's like his spirit was just hanging all around me. The first thing you'd know I'd start crying because I felt he wanted me to help him get buried, get sent back to his gravesite by his father. I still have tears running when I think of it."

The post America Abandoned Public Executions for a Good Reason appeared first on Reason Magazine.

Italy: 13-year-old Tunisian sets sleeping homeless man on fire to steal his backpack, not criminally liable due to age

16 October 2026 at 13:55

On the night between Oct 7-8, 2026, in the Porto Vecchio area of Sanremo, a 13-year-old boy of Tunisian origin poured gasoline on a sleeping homeless man and set him on fire in an attempt to steal his backpack.

The incident took place in Piazzale Vesco. According to reports based on surveillance footage, the boy first filled a bottle with gasoline at a nearby pump, approached the man while he slept, poured the fuel on him — primarily on the legs, according to multiple accounts — and ignited it with a match. The goal was reportedly to take the backpack containing the victim’s belongings.

The man’s screams alerted personnel from the Coast Guard. Carabinieri and emergency medical services also responded. The victim, described in reports as a foreign man of approximately 40 years of age, with one account referring to a French man in his sixties, sustained burns to his legs. He was hospitalized for two days at Sanremo’s Ospedale Hospital before being discharged, according to Il Giornale media outlet.

Surveillance cameras operated by the Capitaneria and the Municipality of Sanremo recorded much of the incident. 

Investigators identified the 13-year-old, who had initially fled the scene. He was located in a community facility where he lives with his mother.

Under Italian law, anyone under the age of 14 is subject to an absolute presumption of non-imputability. This means the boy cannot be held criminally responsible or subjected to ordinary criminal punishment, regardless of the severity of the act. The juvenile prosecutor’s office in Genoa is handling the case and can consider protective or rehabilitative measures focused on the minor’s situation.

Some coverage has described the migrant youth having prior contact with authorities in Sanremo, though details remain limited as the matter falls under juvenile proceedings.

The post Italy: 13-year-old Tunisian sets sleeping homeless man on fire to steal his backpack, not criminally liable due to age appeared first on Remix News.

Germany: Migrant mob beats German student outside his school and films the attack

16 October 2026 at 13:06

German Police are investigating ten suspects ages 13 to 15, including suspects from Syria and Chechnya, in connection with a violent assault and robbery of a student outside a secondary school Wednesday, according to the Eastern Police Directorate.

Videos of the attack has been posted to social media, which shows the beating from two different angles.

JUST IN: A German youth was severely beaten by a mob of migrant youths just outside a school in Frankfurt (Oder). The incident happened in front of the Heinrich-von-Kleist School. The suspects released the video with a gangster rap soundtrack. Follow: @RMXnews https://t.co/UeRGRnEeMW

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 16, 2026

🇩🇪🔴 A young German youth is completely surrounded by a mob of migrants and ruthlessly beaten. This same image has been broadcast time after time across Western Europe. Follow: @rmxnews https://t.co/BtGuEYuVz8

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 16, 2026

The attack occurred in front of the Heinrich von Kleist High School. A video that police consider authentic shows roughly ten youths surrounding the student. One appears to demand something from him; he shows his empty pockets. Moments later, he is punched in the face.

Other members of the group then punch and kick him, including kicks to the head, and continue the assault after he falls to the ground and is defenseless. The victim sustained facial injuries and reported the incident to police the same day, authorities said.

🇩🇪JUST IN: Young German students were reportedly hunted and beaten by a group of foreigners in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. On Tuesday, attackers at a train station in Jessen beat a number of German students in random assaults, with the victims stating that they do not know why they were targeted. The German media outlet Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported on the incident, noting that police have so far been unable to locate the perpetrators. Since the initial reports, a video has been published on social media showing the moment the German youths were attacked. Follow: @RMXnews

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 3, 2026

The ten suspects are Syrians, Chechens, Polish, Russian, Syrian, and German nationals, the Eastern Police Directorate told local broadcaster Oderwelle. They face charges of aggravated assault and robbery. Investigators have secured the circulating video and received numerous tips from the public.

On Thursday, officers conducted an operation at the Ulrich von Hutten High School, that police linked to the case. Several youths were questioned and searched. Sören Schunke, headmaster of the Heinrich von Kleist school, said the attackers were not students at his institution. It remains unclear whether any of the suspects attend the Hutten school.

Frankfurt (Oder) Mayor Axel Strasser, an independent, expressed outrage in a video message.

“What was done to a young person here in Frankfurt (Oder) leaves me speechless. It hurts to have to witness such violence. And it makes me angry that a youth has to experience something like this,” he said. 

He added that violence has no place in the city and offered condolences to the student and his family. Strasser said he had spoken by phone with Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann of the CDU and that security talks involving police, school authorities and other partners would be held to address youth violence.

The Frankfurt (Oder) case comes amid a series of recent youth-group attacks in Potsdam that Redmann has described as predominantly migrant-linked, including suspects of Syrian nationality. On Sept. 25, roughly 20 people — mostly migrants, according to the minister — entered a private party uninvited and attacked guests. The following day, three youths were assaulted by a group of about 25 and injured, which Remix News reported on.

🇩🇪🔴 “Unbridled and massive violence.” Witnesses report that up to 20 people with an “Arab migration background” viciously beat three high school students from the Catholic Marien School in Babelsberg with “massive violence.” The two 17-year-olds and an 18-year-old were beaten with punches and kicks in the Wannsee district of Berlin last Saturday evening.  One of the 17-year-olds lost consciousness. During the assault, the 18-year-old hit his head against a parked car, which required treatment at the hospital. “For me, this is attempted murder,” said one witness who spoke with the German news outlet Tagesspiegel. The perpetrators fled into the forest and police continue to search for them. The suspects are believed to come from Potsdam, where robberies by youth gangs have become more frequent recently. Follow: @RMXnews

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 3, 2026

Additional attacks in early October left victims with head injuries requiring hospital treatment. Authorities are monitoring a group of roughly 25 mostly migrant suspects in connection with the Potsdam incidents. Currently, two alleged ringleaders are in pretrial detention and police presence has been increased. 

Redmann has said foreign perpetrators, particularly Syrians whose protection status can be revoked, could face deportation. “Whoever comes to Germany and simply has no respect for Germany, we will not tolerate that,” he told the state parliament. “The rule of law has the final say.” 

As Remix News has reported in the past, 40 percent of cases of school violence involve foreigners in Germany.

The post Germany: Migrant mob beats German student outside his school and films the attack appeared first on Remix News.

EU Signs New Asset Recovery Treaty as Criminal Networks Retain Vast Majority of Illegal Profits

14 October 2026 at 20:28

A new Council of Europe protocol is intended to strengthen cross-border investigations, confiscation and the recovery of criminal wealth. European authorities currently recover only a small proportion of the proceeds generated by organised and financial crime.

The European Union has signed an international agreement strengthening the recovery of criminal assets, as Brussels seeks to address the failure of national authorities to confiscate the overwhelming majority of wealth generated through organised crime, corruption and money laundering.

The agreement, opened for signature in Strasbourg on Wednesday, 14 October, introduces additional provisions governing the identification, freezing, confiscation and management of assets held across national borders.

It supplements the Council of Europe’s Warsaw Convention, which established an international framework for cooperation against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The Additional Protocol adopted by the Council of Europe extends existing asset-recovery mechanisms and strengthens the ability of national authorities to cooperate when criminal proceeds are transferred beyond the country where an offence occurred.

The financial foundations of organised crime

European authorities have long struggled to deprive criminal organisations of the profits generated by their activities.

An estimate frequently cited by European institutions suggests that only around one per cent of criminal proceeds are ultimately confiscated.

The figure highlights a persistent weakness in criminal enforcement. Police and prosecutors may identify offenders and secure convictions without recovering the money used to finance further criminal operations.

Organised crime networks can distribute their assets through bank accounts, companies, property holdings and intermediaries operating in different jurisdictions.

Investigators must establish the origin and ownership of those assets, obtain the necessary legal orders and secure cooperation from foreign authorities before funds or property can be transferred again.

The problem has become increasingly serious as criminal organisations operate across several countries while enforcement powers remain largely national.

In an earlier examination of Europe’s response to drug-trafficking networks, EU Today reported on the importance of confiscating criminal assets rather than concentrating exclusively on arrests and drug seizures.

The financial structures supporting trafficking organisations can survive the prosecution of individual members, allowing criminal enterprises to replace personnel and continue operations.

New powers for cross-border investigations

The protocol is intended to address practical obstacles encountered when authorities seek assistance from another country.

Its provisions cover international cooperation in asset recovery, the management of seized property and the execution of confiscation decisions.

They also address circumstances in which confiscation may be possible without a conventional criminal conviction, subject to the safeguards and legal requirements established by participating states.

Such arrangements can be particularly relevant when suspects have fled, proceedings cannot be completed or assets are held through structures designed to conceal their ownership.

The protocol also provides for improved cooperation between designated asset-recovery authorities.

These mechanisms are intended to reduce the delays that can arise when investigators must navigate different national procedures while attempting to secure property that may be rapidly moved or disposed of.

The Council of Europe’s treaty documentation explains that the protocol seeks to update the Warsaw Convention in accordance with developments in international anti-money laundering standards.

The revised framework has also been developed with reference to EU rules and the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force.

Existing European legislation

The agreement builds on legislation already adopted within the European Union.

The 2024 Asset Recovery and Confiscation Directive established stronger provisions concerning the tracing, freezing, confiscation and management of assets associated with criminal activity.

That directive is intended to improve national asset-recovery systems and strengthen cooperation between authorities.

The EU has separately developed a new anti-money laundering framework, including the establishment of the Frankfurt-based Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.

The authority has responsibilities concerning the supervision of high-risk financial institutions and coordination between national bodies combating illicit financial activity.

The new Council of Europe protocol addresses a related but distinct problem: how authorities recover assets once suspected criminal proceeds have been identified, particularly when those assets are located in another jurisdiction.

An earlier EU Today report on criminal enforcement of sanctions violations illustrated the importance of asset confiscation in cases involving breaches of European restrictions.

Although sanctions enforcement and organised crime investigations operate under different legal arrangements, both can require authorities to identify property, obtain judicial orders and prevent assets from being moved beyond their reach.

Ratification and implementation

The protocol was adopted by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on 15 May 2026 and opened for signature on 14 October.

The European Union’s participation requires further legal procedures before the new provisions become binding.

The Commission had previously submitted proposals authorising the EU to sign the agreement, reflecting the division of responsibilities between the Union and its member states in criminal justice and financial regulation.

Individual governments must also determine how the international obligations interact with national procedures governing investigations, property rights and confiscation.

The effectiveness of the agreement will depend on the speed of its implementation and the resources available to investigators, prosecutors and financial intelligence authorities.

Criminal organisations can transfer funds internationally through transactions completed in minutes. Judicial cooperation and the enforcement of confiscation decisions frequently require considerably longer.

The protocol offers governments additional instruments for narrowing that gap, but cannot eliminate the administrative and legal obstacles without corresponding improvements in national enforcement.

For European authorities, the practical measure of success will be the amount of criminal wealth that can be identified and recovered.

The Strasbourg agreement provides a wider legal framework for that task at a time when the profits generated by organised crime continue to exceed the assets confiscated by enforcement agencies.

Germany: 2 males with a migration background use robot ‘Ahmed’ to sexually assault young women in Cologne, possible first ever case of a robot used for sexual assault

14 October 2026 at 11:11

Cologne police are investigating an unprecedented incident in which a humanoid robot was allegedly used to sexually harass a 16-year-old girl on a busy city street, with the act filmed and livestreamed. Videos of the assault appear to show two men with a migration background controlling the robot, which they named “Ahmed,” an Arabic name. They also claim the robot is from the multicultural neighborhood of Neukölln in Berlin. 

The case, which has drawn international attention as potentially the first documented instance of a robot being used directly in a sexual assault, has to do with red-and-gold Unitree robot that approached different teenage women. In the videos, which Remix News has compiled into one longer clip, the robot grabs their behinds, makes masturbatory motions, and humps the women. 

The post has been censored on X.

At least one victim, a 16-year-old girl, has filed a criminal complaint.

According to a police statement, the roughly 1.2-meter-tall robot touched the girl on the buttocks and made thrusting motions against her between 11:45 p.m. and midnight on the night of October 10–11, 2026, near the corner of Palmstrasse and Hohenzollernring. 

The girl was with two friends, ages 17 and 18. Officers responding to the scene located a 16-year-old from Wegberg and a 19-year-old companion nearby. The robot was found in the trunk of a Volkswagen where the younger suspect had stowed it; police seized the machine and the pair’s mobile phones. Investigators are examining whether the movements were deliberately controlled via remote control or an app and are treating the matter as a suspected case of sexual harassment.

🇩🇪🔴JUST IN: Asylum seekers and men with a migration background are the main group that should be banned from German swimming pools, according to national police union leader @M_Ostermann. "But in the end, we are always just describing symptoms instead of tackling the root causes. And that is why it is completely clear that those outdoor pools are acting responsibly by simply not letting these groups of people – men, mostly with a migration background, often from the main asylum countries of origin – into the outdoor pools anymore." That is the advice comes after yet another wave of sexual assaults and violence in German pools from migrants. He further writes: "Enough is enough. They are men, and almost always from the main countries of origin for asylum seekers. Year after year, the same headlines, the same incidents, and the same excuses." "Public swimming pools used to be places of carefree enjoyment for children and families. Today, many people avoid them out of fear of violence, harassment, and disrespect." "Enough with the political whitewashing. Those who do not clearly name problems will never solve them. The rule of law must finally make this clear with all due consequence." "Anyone who threatens others, harasses women, or commits violence has forfeited their right as a guest and any claim to understanding. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance – swift proceedings, harsh penalties, and, where legally possible, consistent immigration consequences." "The people living in Germany have a right to safety. They have a right to public spaces being what they once were again: places for families and children – not for intimidation, violence, and disrespect." Follow: @RMXnews

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) June 29, 2026

The 16-year-old and his companion are accused of filming the encounter, streaming it live on social media, and providing commentary. 

Many of the victims appear to be German women. Some of them laugh or appear to be amused, but others appear uncomfortable or scream.

Media reports speculate the model is the Unitree R1-series model, priced around €5,000, which can walk, respond to voice commands, and be remotely operated or programmed with custom movement sequences. Experts have noted that the specific thrusting motions are not standard factory behaviors.

As Remix News has reported, many public areas have become insecure, featuring robberies, rapes, assaults, and other threats. However, for women, the threat level has gone up substantially, including from random street harassment due to mass immigration.

🇩🇪"I hate Berlin. Berlin is sh*t." A thief stole this young German woman’s phone and then told her, "in a mixture of English and German, that he would only give it to me if I had sex with him." This woman was assaulted in Berlin’s famed Görlitzer Park, where migrants gang raped a woman in 2023.

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) June 6, 2026

🇩🇪”You have 2 options. Either you give me your number right now… or we stay here until 5 a.m. and I’ll follow you all the way home to your house." A young German woman is relentlessly harassed and threatened by a migrant man. https://t.co/8qq3GJ203S

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) November 25, 2025

The post Germany: 2 males with a migration background use robot ‘Ahmed’ to sexually assault young women in Cologne, possible first ever case of a robot used for sexual assault appeared first on Remix News.

‘They tore away my dignity, my body’ – 3 Pakistani migrants on trial for raping Belgian university student in convenience store

14 October 2026 at 09:57

A female University of Mons student was allegedly sequestered and raped in the back room of a convenience store by three men of Pakistani origin in the Belgian city of Mons. The suspects are now on trial as of Oct. 12, 2026, for aggravated rape and unlawful confinement.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Dec. 12, 2025, at a night shop on Rue de la Clef in Mons. The student, identified in reports as Laura, a pseudonym, entered the store around 1:30 a.m. after an evening out, first to buy cookies and later around 1:42 a.m., for a drink. A shop employee invited her to have a drink in the back room. She agreed while using a translation app to communicate with him and then followed him. While she was in the back of the shop, the other employees closed the shop at 2:29 a.m. with her still inside.

While she was with the men, the owner asked an employee to serve her whisky and Cola.

Concerned about the drinking the beverage, she texted her roommate: “I’m at the convenience store. If I don’t come back, call the police.”

After consuming the drink, her vision then blurred and she lost consciousness, according to Belgian news outlet L’Avenir.

She regained awareness around 6:34 a.m., alone in the back room, disoriented, with her clothes disheveled and without underwear. She then got up and left. 

Garbage collectors later described seeing a terrified young woman looking over her shoulder. She reported sexual violence to her roommate and medical exams found male DNA in her vagina. 

Police intervened at the shop, finding two men present and a third hidden in a cupboard. Investigators recovered the student’s underwear, which contained semen matching one of the three suspects.

The three men are all of Pakistani origin, including the shop owner and an employee. The police arrested the suspects. 

One also faces a charge related to an alleged attempted rape of another customer in July 2025, which involved an attempt to force a kiss in the back room. All three deny the charges. The owner has claimed the student tried to steal €7,000 from his pockets, a version the prosecution rejects as it does not explain the scientific evidence.

In court a Monday morning, the public prosecutor treated the three as co-authors of the rape. 

“None of the three justifies the closing of the shop while this young woman is inside,” the prosecutor stated, requesting sentences of four and five years. 

The court also discussed a possible requalification of the facts as failure to assist a person in danger for two of the accused, while the defense lawyers pleaded for acquittal. 

The student’s lawyer, Odile Maes, argued the men knew what was happening in the back room and shared responsibility, calling them “sexual predators.”

 The victim was present in court and delivered emotional testimony, saying: “I have the feeling of having been thrown away like a broken toy that night. They tore away my dignity, my body, my friends, my family, my studies, and many other things. I demand justice.”

The student has described lasting effects including nightmares, isolation, fear of men, weight gain, and the loss of a student job, though she completed her first year of university with schedule adjustments. A judgment is expected in early November.

The post ‘They tore away my dignity, my body’ – 3 Pakistani migrants on trial for raping Belgian university student in convenience store appeared first on Remix News.

Germany: Syrian migrant arrested for raping 17-year-old girl in Dresden apartment building hallway

13 October 2026 at 14:05

Police arrested an 18-year-old Syrian man on suspicion of raping a 17-year-old girl in a stairwell in a popular nightlife district, authorities said.

The incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. Sunday in a multi-family building on Königsbrücker Strasse in Dresden’s Neustadt neighborhood, near Albertplatz, according to police and media reports. The area is known for bars, pubs and clubs that remain busy into the early morning hours.

The man reportedly dragged her into the stairwell of a building and raped her there. Neither he or the victim lived in the building.

The girl escaped her alleged attacker, fled the building and encountered a police patrol on the street, where she reported the rape, police said. Officers immediately launched a search and arrested the suspect nearby a short time later.

The Syrian man was brought before an investigating judge Monday and ordered held in pretrial detention at Dresden’s justice prison, according to Bild newspaper. Criminal police are investigating the case as rape. Investigators are still determining whether the two knew each other beforehand.

Police have released few additional details about the circumstances of the incident or the girl’s condition. The suspect has not been publicly identified by name. The investigation continues.

The post Germany: Syrian migrant arrested for raping 17-year-old girl in Dresden apartment building hallway appeared first on Remix News.

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