Deutsche Presse-Agentur
May 9, 2006 Tuesday 4:35 PM EST

German police arrest three from alleged Armenian murder gang

Rudolstadt, Germany

German police arrested Tuesday three men suspected of belonging to an
Armenian drugs-and-murder gang, bringing the number of alleged
members in custody to five.

They are alleged to have murdered four Caucasians in eastern
Germany, sometimes by administering drug overdoses, and police will
investigate whether they are linked to six murders elsewhere in
Europe. The gang operated in Germany, Belgium, Britain and Armenia.

One gang member is already serving a prison sentence in Germany
and a second is in custody in France, awaiting deportation.

The inquiry leading to Tuesday’s arrests in the cities of Gera and
Halle began three years ago with the discovery of two skeletons and
fragments of clothing in woods in the area. One victim was a
47-year-old Armenian but the other has yet to be identified, police
said.