Black Death Group kidnap "model" for Darkweb auction

[semper occultus]

so this is just a toxic combination of some canny on-line fraudsters, a half-way decent looking girl who takes a selfie & thereby becomes an aspiring "model" ( & ofcourse being the DM there's plenty of opportunity to see her portfolio of swimsuit shoots taken in her bathroom ) & some over-ambitious pervert who has watched too many sequels to Hostel - nothing to see here right ?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4766432/Model-drugged-kidnapped-Italy-tells-ordeal.html









The online network Black Death has been previously investigated by Europol. It refers to victims as ‘merchandise’ and boasts it can ‘kidnap a specific target for your needs’.
Herba reportedly decided to release the model after finding out that she has a two-year-old son. According to Italian police, the rules of his gang apparently ban ‘kidnapping mothers’.

Describing more of her ordeal, Miss Ayling told police: ‘[Herba] tells me that his boss is furious as they have kidnapped the wrong person.
‘I should not have been taken because it is clear from my Instagram account that I am a mother of a small child and that’s against the rules of the organisation.

‘He said the imprisonment couldn’t stop as they had already published two pictures of me on the deep web, made when I was unconscious.
‘There were already some people who expressed their interest in me.

‘He told me he had made more than 15million euros in the last five years. He explained to me that all girls are sold to Arab countries. When the buyer is tired of a girl he either gives her to other people or feeds her to the tigers.’

Herba reportedly drove the model back to the British consulate in Milan on July 17 – a move which led to his arrest. Before dropping her off he is said to have demanded £45,000 from her and ‘threatened to kill her’ if she told anyone about her ordeal.

Detectives say Herba has confessed to the plot, which is said to have taken several months to plan. He appeared in a Milan court on Friday. Police investigator Serena Ferrari said: ‘The psychological pressure on the girl has been extreme.’

Detectives said Herba claims he is suffering from leukaemia and that the other members of the gang are Romanian. He is said to have told police that the others forced him to write the blackmail emails to Miss Ayling’s modelling agency. The model took police to the fake studio and the remote house where she was held before returning to Britain yesterday.


MYSTERY OF ONLINE CRIME SYNDICATE: WHO OR WHAT IS BLACK DEATH?

Little is known about the Black Death criminal syndicate that is said to operate on the dark web.
They are said to have been set up during the early days of the internet in 1994 and are involved in various crimes.
When police arrested Herba they found a pamphlet associated with the group which said they operate in 'disturbing' areas including bombing, drug dealing, human trafficking and arms dealing.
A note was also found addressed to the victim saying she was being released due to the 'huge generosity' of the group.
It went on to say one of their members 'made a case' to release her which was granted due to her 'status as a young mother', with her kidnapping branded 'a mistake'.

But it came with a warning not to tell authorities about the kidnapping and she was told 'never to talk about us in bad language and without respect'.
The note said the model had been 'treated fairly and with respect' and the group expected the same.
A picture also showed a cartoon of doctors from the mid 1300s wearing 'plague masks' with hooked noses which they believed would protect them from 'putrid air' which was thought to carry the disease.

There has been some debate as to whether Black Death is real or an online scam. Writer Joseph Cox who works for internet site Motherboard said he tried to investigate their dealings in 2015 and tried to enter an auction for a woman.

After exchanging numerous emails, the group wrote to him: 'We don't invite strangers to auctions. We don't want popularity. No Europol. No people just looking around. No journalists or bloggers. Just serious business.'

[stefano]

Very weird!

If you don't know about the Daily Mail (I don't) there's an Indy piece too with more detail and an interview with an Italian policeman.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said an address in Sampson Close in Oldbury was raided on 18 July in connection with the investigation.

I started suspected she (Ayling) is in on it for some reason. Maybe the too-tidy details - “When I woke up I was wearing a pink bodysuit and the socks I am wearing now," - and the very detailed information she was supposedly given by the kidnapper, Herba. And the way he was arrested moments after he dropped her off at the British consulate, is that not odd? But the cops do have Herba in custody. Let's keep an eye out for more.

[Burnt Hill]

'Black Death' group says British model kidnapping was intended for publicity, authorities say

BY
Leonard Greene

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Monday, August 7, 2017, 6:26 PM

A group that calls itself “Black Death” — accused of stuffing a British model into a suitcase and holding her hostage for six days — tried to put a positive media spin on the ordeal and her captors, according to a report.
Authorities investigating the alleged kidnapping of model Chloe Ayling, 20, in Italy last month said her kidnappers fed the stunner talking points about the group to give to the media upon her release.
A letter to Ayling found on a suspect’s computer said Ayling "agreed to sneak a pre-determined set of information into the media, and we will expect to see evidence that has been done in near future," according to The Independent, a British newspaper.


Chloe Ayling, 20, was kidnapped and found inside of a suitcase. (Instagram)
The letter, written in English, laid out a series of demands made of Ayling upon her release. The note also suggested that despite the snatch-and-drug caper, the kidnapping was intended to be used as a publicity event for the group.
British model stuffed in suitcase in failed human trafficking try
The letter warned that anything Ayling said publicly in the wake of the kidnapping would be monitored.
"You have been treated fairly, with respect and we expect to hear exactly the same about us in return," the letter said.
Officials said they could not verify the authenticity of the Black Death group, or that anyone from the group had written the letter.


Lukasz Herba was arrested July 18, and confessed to his role in the kidnapping. (Ufficio stampa Polizia di Stato/AP)
Ayling said she traveled to Milan for a July 11 photo shoot. After her arrival, Ayling said, she was abducted by men who injected her with a tranquilizer, put a pillowcase over her head, handcuffed her and stuffed her in a suitcase that they crammed into the trunk of a car.
British model recalls 'terrifying experience' after kidnapping
Cops said they drove her to a farmhouse outside of Turin, where she stayed handcuffed to a wooden dresser while her captors tried find a buyer on the sex slave market.


New York Daily News cover on August 7, 2017.
Authorities said her captors were trying to get $300,000 for her online until she told them she had a 2-year-old child.
“You have a 2-year-old child and our rules exclude mothers,” one of the kidnappers told the young mom, according to a report.
Selling a mother apparently goes against the organization’s rules, officials said.
The model managed to lead authorities to the farmhouse where she had been held.
Lukasz Herba, a 30-year-old Polish citizen who lives in Oldbury, England, was arrested July 18. He confessed to his role in the kidnapping after dropping Ayling off at the British consulate in Milan, police said.


Authorities said her captors were trying to get $300,000 for her online until she told them she had a 2-year-old child. (POLIZIA DI STATO)
The woman said she had not eaten in days.
The letter said it had been a “mistake” to take Ayling into custody.
The letter also demanded Ayling pay $50,000 in bitcoin within a month.
The model’s lawyer said she was recovering at home with her family.

[liminalOyster]

Chloe Ayling's lawyer hits out at claims model was in on kidnap

The lawyer for a British model allegedly abducted in Milan by kidnappers who tried to auction her online has said any doubts about her story have been dismissed.

Chloe Ayling told Italian police she was attacked by two men as she attended a photoshoot last month, drugged and transported in a bag to Borgial, an isolated village near Turin.

The 20-year-old’s captor allegedly wanted to auction her as a sex slave online but released her after six days and took her to the British consulate in Milan.

It has emerged that Ayling, from south London, went shopping for groceries and shoes with her captor, prompting questions about the degree of coercion she was under, and whether the pair may have collaborated in a fake kidnapping.

But her lawyer, Francesco Pesce, said she was scared to resist any of her abductor’s wishes, particularly as she believed there were other members of a gang involved who would harm her if she tried to escape.

“There were legitimate doubts [about her story] at the start, which were surpassed,” Pesce told the Guardian. “What Chloe told police during 10 hours, it wasn’t easy on her. If the police were convinced [of the story] after that, then I am convinced. What also would be his [the abductor’s] motive [to collaborate]? Twenty years in jail?”

He said Ayling initially had her wrists and ankles tied but was later unbound and taken shopping. Pesce said the model was told she was to be sold to the Middle East for sex. Pesce added that she had repeated her story multiple times, to police and before a judge.

“I heard people doubting her and implying that she was somehow involved in this case, that she was somehow involved in this because it was too easy an escape and that I really can’t believe, that people think that about Chloe Ayling,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, describing the suggestions as evil. “She was subjected to a tremendous ordeal and she suffered so much.”

Lukasz Pawel Herba, 30, was arrested after he took Ayling to the British consulate. Herba, a Polish national who lives in Britain, allegedly planned to sell her for more than £230,000 and demanded a ransom from her agent.

A police spokesman refused to say whether they were investigating a collaboration between Herba and Ayling.

“It’s a very delicate investigation and we can’t say anything. We are investigating a crime,” he said. “Everything will be communicated in an official way.”

In her statement, Ayling said she had previously met her captor in April, when she was in Milan for another photoshoot. Identifying himself as “Andre”, he informed her the shoot had been cancelled and accompanied her in a taxi to the airport.

Doubts have also been cast on Herba’s version of events, which has changed. Officers were quoted by local media as describing him as a “dangerous person with traces of mythomania”.

Herba reportedly handed Ayling a business card of a gang called Black Death, which he claimed to be part of, and asked her to publicise the group when he let her go.

Lorenzo Bucossi, a Milan police official, has said officers were investigating whether Herba was operating as part of a gang or had made it up.

Herba told police he had leukaemia and, desperate for money to cure himself, came into contact with a group of Romanians in Birmingham whogave him £500,000 to rent premises in a number of places including Milan, ostensibly for the storage of clothing.

He told the police he heard about Ayling being kept at the property in Borgial, which he said he rented before coming to Italy. He said there were two Romanians there when he arrived, who asked him to stay there with her.

“The Romanians told me [via email] I could let her go [because she was a mother of two, which was against the group’s rules],” Herba told police. “I took her to the consulate to make sure she was safe.”

Europol said it only has one mention of a gang named Black Death on its database, and that this does not necessarily suggest it exists.

Police in Italy say they are looking for at least one accomplice, thought to be Herba’s brother Mikail, although they have refused to confirm the identity of that person.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -on-kidnap

[semper occultus]

British model's kidnapper tried to sell story to tabloid while holding her captive

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/07/british-models-kidnapper-tried-sell-story-tabloid-holding-captive/

A Polish man who allegedly kidnapped British model Chloe Ayling to sell her on the ‘dark web’ as a sex slave attempted to sell the story to a tabloid newspaper whilst holding her captive, it emerged.

Lukasz Pawel Herba is accused of being part of a Black Death gang which drugged and kidnapped Chloe Ayling, who had been lured to Milan on the promise of a fashion shoot.

Herba, 30, a Polish national who was living in Oldbury, in the West Midlands, told the 20-year-old glamour model as she was held prisoner in a remote farmhouse that unless her agent paid a ransom of $300,000, she would be sold as a sex slave in the Middle East.


But Herba also emailed The Daily Mirror two days into the kidnapping, under the heading ‘British model kidnapped by Russian mafia’, apparently offering to sell the story as well as photos of Ms Ayling.

He told the Italian police that he had falsely claimed the Russian mafia were involved in order to “attract attention”.

The attempt to sell the story – which could well have compromised any effort to traffick the young model – emerged during questioning of Ms Ayling and her alleged kidnapper by police in Milan.

Asked if she knew that Herba had tried to contact the newspaper, she said: “I know nothing about that at all.”

It comes as it emerged that the Black Death group were investigated in 2016 amid fears that they were selling a 15-year-old British girl in an online auction.

Europol had monitored the group's Dark Web site of as they advertised two teenagers for auction, one of whom was under the age of consent and described as "pure".

The auction of the 15-year-old, whose name was given as Laura, started at $750,000 and was due to take place at the end of May 2016, with the Black Death website warning that it was "fully booked".

A second auction for a 17-year-old girl born in the UK named only as Gemma had been scheduled to take place just days earlier with a starting bid of $120,000. The age, hair colour and measurements of both teenagers were posted alongside their auction adverts.

It is unclear whether the girls were real or the auctions went ahead, but a version of the Black Death's website saved by the European Cybercrime Centre has emerged as part of the investigation into the kidnap of Miss Ayling.

A Europol spokesman said: "An EU Member State previously requested cross checking of Europol databases on this group and an answer was provided.Since this answer contained classified information, Europol cannot disseminate it outside the law enforcement community."


It came as Miss Ayling's agent revealed she was forced by Italian police to stay in the country for for almost three weeks after her release.

Phil Green, of Supermodels Agency, said: "Chloe had her passport detained by Italian police who would not let her return to the UK until she gave evidence at a pre-trial hearing on August 4."

"Today she is debriefing Met Police and the Foreign Office, and has requested to spend the rest of the day in privacy with her mother," he added.

The transcript of the questioning of Miss Ayling shows that Italian police asked her why she had agreed to go shopping for shoes with Herba the day before she was released.

The two of them were recognised by the owner of a shoe shop in the town of Viu’ in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.

Pressed on why she had not revealed the shopping trip to police before, she began to cry.

“Is it not strange that you went to buy shoes with your abductor?” a detective asked her.

She said she went along on the shopping trip because by that time Herba had promised to set her free, after apparently taking pity on her when he discovered that she had a young child.

The police also asked her whether she had had sex with her captor, after they found traces of sperm on a bed in the farmhouse where she was held.

She categorically denied that they had had sexual intercourse.

“He slept in the other room but after the second night he took the cuffs off my feet while reassuring that me sooner or later I would be freed, so I should not risk fleeing or my life would be at risk,” she told police.

“From that time I slept in his room sharing his double bed. He never sexually molested me or requested sexual relations. The ‘Black Death’ organization prohibits it and severely punishes its members who touch kidnapped girls destined for sale at auction.”

She said she was given underwear and a clean T-shirt every day.

She told them: “He tried to make sexual advances but I always rejected them, promising him a more intimate relationship in the future. I made him believe we could be more intimate when the whole thing ended.”

The police also quizzed the model, from Coulsdon in Surrey, about why Herba had chosen to give her back her freedom by personally taking her to the British consulate in Milan on July 17 – a decision which resulted in his arrest.

She said her abductor had initially planned to drop her off a 15-minute walk away from the consulate but that he changed her mind.

When they arrived at the consulate early in the morning it was closed, so they went to a nearby café for breakfast.

Police have described Herba, who is in custody, as a “mythomaniac” and a “pathological liar”.

Under questioning by Italian police, he claimed he became part of the kidnapping gang because he was suffering from leukemia and desperately needed to raise half a million pounds for treatment.

He could provide no medical proof of having the illness.

The Daily Mirror said in a statement that they had received the message about Miss Ayling that was also sent the the Sun and someone from C4's Dispatches, but " there was nothing in the email to suggest it was from the alleged kidnappers, nor was it an attempt to sell a story about a kidnap.

"We contacted the modelling agency copied into the email, but our call was not returned. No further emails were received."



An Italian police source said they were looking into the possibility that Miss Ayling and Herba may have been collaborating, but nothing has been proven.

"During the first two days of questioning, neither Miss Ayling or Herba co-operated with the police," the source told the Daily Mail. "The pair may have been seen together on other occasions. We also cannot find any trace of the agency that allegedly lured her to the country for the photoshoot."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/she-always-wanted-famous-friend-10950652

[Grizzly]

This seems like completely fabricated bullshit, clickbait... Interwebs are dangerous! Booga booga!

[semper occultus]

apart from the fact that this group appears to have a footprint of some sort - however tenuous - in criminal intelligence databases prior to this apparent media circus.

But then that's not unexpected given there are also groups claiming to be teams of professional hitmen inviting solicitations to murder and bitcoin payments for their services - difficult to go to you local consumer watch-dog to make a complaint when you fail to get satisfactory service