LOME, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Togolese police have extradited 13 Benin citizens, among whom were three females alleged to be engaged in activities connected with organized crime, police said in the capital Lome Friday.
Escaping an ongoing lightning operation in Benin, they have settled in Togo as a sanctuary before being arrested in two successive operations over the last month in the host country.
Togolese police handed them over to Benin police authorities on Thursday, as part of the cooperation between the two countries to combat trans-border criminality.
They are considered to be a new breed of criminals commonly called "gay-men" in Benin.
Both in Benin and Togo, "gay-men" are accused of practicing ritual murder to deities for protection and magic money making.
In these countries, "gay-men" are blamed for the disappearance of girls and children, whose dead bodies are found days later, emptied of their blood and without some organs.
