A 30-year-old woman accused of forcing young Nigerian women into prostitution with “voodoo magic” will face trial for human trafficking, Bonn police said on Thursday.

German authorities were first alerted to the exploitation in the winter of 2009 when they arrested 20-year-old prostitute during a routine check at a Bonn bordello for having false identification.

She told officers that her "madam" had forced her into selling sex, handing over all of her earnings and not informing police using “voodoo magic” from the victim’s native country.

“Should she fail to adhere to this, she was threatened with sickness, madness and even death,” police said in a statement.

The madam reportedly used “voodoo packets,” which contained items such as finger nails, body hair, clothing and photos.

“The victims believe that the person who possesses these packets exercises power over them,” the police statement said.

Based on this report, police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia began a wider investigation, uncovering a network of smugglers, human traffickers and money launderers. Officers searched apartments in Berlin, Oberhausen, Duisburg, Essen and Hamburg, the statement said.

The voodoo madam was arrested this May in Koblenz and remains imprisoned on remand, while a second woman was arrested in Hamburg on similar charges.

The cases led to further investigations of human trafficking, money laundering, and violations of immigration laws.

Since then the police have concluded their investigation of the madam and the state prosecutor’s office has pressed charges.

“She will answer for herself before a court soon,” the police statement said.
http://www.thelocal.de/national/2010090 ... ontent=146

That's sick and twisted. 'Nuff said.

Aw, poor girls

Voodoo seems to have some affect O.o.. unless its just that the person believes so strongly that the "juju" is real that it causes them to think they have no choice but to comply.. its all very unusual.

naaah
voodoo is just a small form of religion
this is most likely hoodoo (if that rly exists and works)

Already the text brings the skeptical material up.


The victims believed those packets had power over them (and not very educated and religious-ish stuff is never a good combo)

Sad, but yes the twisted ways of making money

well actually those things only work if the person believes in it

That can be said of many things.

It feeds off ignorance and easily fooled ones though

Drugs and drums... that's the foundation of hoodoo. It works pretty well. I'm always amazed at how many people I know who actually fear any form of voodoo. Hell, I have a chicken foot tied onto my SCA landsknecht hat lol. It's right beside a huge pewter Celtic cross and a Baphomet pentagram... I like to keep 'em guessing.

It's a shame assholes like this lady use religion for evil purposes (evil meaning "with intent") like this. Unfortunately, garbage people like this are all the media will report on. You don't ever see reports about the folks who use it to help people feel empowered to overcome fears, etc..

Exactly, I really hate how the media just chooses sides with their stories. They give so much wrong ideas =/

It's done everywhere, only the surprising or weird/evil stories are the ones that remain known, the ones that aren't surprising or evil enough to be interesting simply disappear, thus leaving everybody with a very one-sided view of reality

Exactly, like with the Catholic church, people only seem to see corruption, rape and wars.
Quite annoying imo

But entirely human, even the Romans were infected by it.
It has a name of itself, the problem of silent evidence. All the evidence that you do hear about (people who prayed and didn't drown for instance) form a very one-sided picture, since the silent evidence (people who prayed and did drown) is never reported
That was of course a obvious example, but the problem of silent evidence is literally everywhere

Yea, like somwere last year they were talking about the crimerates in Holland.
Dutch people had 6% but 10% of the foreign ppl had a record. (ofc they forgot to mention that there are about 10X more Dutch people in the country, so that 6% is far more than the 10)

(it wasn't really 6 and 10, i forgot the real numbers xD)

Stuff like that yeah, it's really one of the big problems of the way our minds work