Brit glamour model Chloe Ayling, 20, reveals she had her wrists and ankles handcuffed before being stuffed in bag by Black Death kidnappers who tried to sell her as sex slave on Dark Web
A BRITISH glamour model drugged and taken captive by dark web kidnappers has revealed she thought she was going to die at the hands of her depraved kidnappers.
Glamour model Chloe Ayling, 20, was lured to a fake photoshoot in Milan last month where she was drugged and stuffed inside a bag before being auctioned on the dark web for £270,000.
Speaking from her home in London today, Chloe said: "I've been through a terrifying experience. I've feared for my life, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour.
"I'm incredibly grateful to the Italian and UK authorities for all they have done to secure my safe release.
"I have just arrived home after four weeks and haven't had time to collect my thoughts. I am not at liberty to say anything further until I have been debriefed by the UK police."
Now her account of her ordeal, as told to Italian investigators, has revealed she was informed several potential buyers had been lined up.
Chloe said she was told that "all girls are for the Arab market, and when the buyer gets fed up of a girl bought at auction, he can gift her to other people, and when of no interest anymore, feed her to tigers."
Chloe also described her kidnapping at the fake photoshoot in Milan.
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"A person with black gloves placed a hand over my mouth from behind while a second person wearing a balaclava gave me an injection in my right arm.
"I believe I lost consciousness because when I woke up, I was wearing just my pink undershirt made of chenille, and the socks I am now wearing, and I realised I was in the coffin of a car, my ankles and wrists in handcuffs, with a black tape covering my mouth, inside a bag where there was just a small hole in the zipper that allowed me to breathe.
"They had taken off my jacket, my blue jeans, and sneakers."
During the three-hour drive to Lemie, near Turin, the car stopped three times every 45 minutes "because I kept on complaining and moving inside the bag".
Chloe said one of the hooded kidnappers wearing a balaclava kept on throwing at her from a bottle "sparkling water right into my mouth".
She said that one man threatened to give her a second injection if she kept moving, then took the handcuffs off and tied her hands behind her back.
Once inside the Lemie cottage and handcuffed once more to a set of drawers, set lying on the floor on a sleeping bag, "after a few minutes a man came into the room, without his face covered and he told me in English that in the meantime their boss had called and that he was furious because they had seized the wrong person.
"I was not meant to be taken because the boss had seen my Instagram profile which clearly showed that I was a mum with a young boy and this went against the rules of the organisation.
"Despite being upset with my kidnapping, he explained that this imprisonment could not stop because in the meantime the organisation had published in the deep web two photos taken shortly after the aggression while I was unconscious, showing the publication on a.... site called Black Death.
"The photos confirmed the fact that I was in the hands of the organisation, and some users had expressed interest in my sale."
Throughout this time she claimed to have encountered five different kidnappers - though she only ever saw two of them.
According to the Italian media reports, one kidnapper - alleged to be Herba - became terrified of angering his bosses after discovering she was a mother.
He then returned to to the British consulate in Milan, where he was arrested by cops.
Today Chloe's lawyer Francesco Pesce told The Sun Online: "The girl won't be coming back to Italy, all she had to say, she has said it already to authorities.
"It must have been terrible for her, a terrible human experience.
"We went together to inspect the site with the police, to that white cottage in Lemie... an isolated abandoned ghost town, it was disquieting.
"But she was strong and recognised the hideous place where she had been jailed."
His mother Daria Pesce, also representing Chloe, added: "That young girl... gave an impeccable testimony of her drama to prosecutors.
"She was very nervous and a bit under shock, but very brave, coherent, resilient and straightforward in what she was saying, she reiterated everything she had first told the cops with lucidity.
"Prosecutors are now concentrated on finding accomplices behind the Pole, as this whole story is linked to a wider, darker picture."
Meanwhile, a family friend told that they feared Chloe had been killed.
The friend said: "They thought they would never see her alive again. She has been through hell. We just want to get her home".
Anti-mafia cops are probing whether the shadowy crime syndicate known as the Black Death is behind the kidnapping, The Sun Online can reveal.
The National Crime Agency aided the Italian authorities by carrying out a raid on Herba’s second-floor Birmingham flat shortly after he was arrested.
An NCA spokesperson confirmed the address was linked to Herba’s family and was searched in connection with the investigation in Italy.
The spokesperson said: “The National Crime Agency and the East Midlands Special Operations Unit have been providing support to the Italian authorities during this investigation.”
The NCA is also believed to be investigating the Black Death Group, the mysterious organisation that operates on the dark web and claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
He said: “We collaborate with our international partners in order to make the dark web a less attractive place for criminals to operate, however we do not comment on specific websites or operations.”
Cops detained the British-based Pole in Milan and found a Black Death leaflet - which features black plague doctors from the 1300s - alongside a note to the victim explaining why she was being released.
The note called her kidnapping a “mistake” because she was a mother of a two-year-old and said “our main and very well respected men” argued for her release.
Chloe told police she was attacked by two men who reportedly demanded £270,000 in Bitcoins to free her – a fee which was later negotiated down to £50,000 by the terrified model’s agent.
The Black Death, which is believed to operate in Eastern Europe, dates back to 1994 and is said to offer services including “assassinations, bombings and arms dealing.”
According to Italian police sources, anti-Mafia are investigating whether the infamous group was behind the depraved kidnapping.
Joint investigations are being carried-out in Italy, the UK and Poland in co-operation with the international police service as investigators try to identify Herba's accomplices.
Italian police, who confirmed that no fee was paid online for the release of Chloe, have also revealed that one of the two cars used by Herba had a right-handed steering wheel and is most likely British, The Sun Online can reveal.
Milan police officer Lorenzo Bucossi told reporters the group the suspect was allegedly working for offered "mercenary services" on the dark web.
According to a translation on Sky News, Mr Bucossi said: "Certainly the author of this very serious crime is a dangerous person - don't forget he was also ready to carry out a 'final solution', as he called it.
"He was a killer and was working for an organisation on the deep web that is offering mercenary services such as bombing attacks, kidnapping and the selling of girls on the dark web."
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We have been providing consular support to a British woman in Italy and are in touch with local authorities."
But authorities are still unclear whether the organisation is legitimately involved in the selling of women or is simply a scam determined to fleece deviants out of Bitcoins.
In one of the group's alleged leaflets it is claimed members have access to doctors who test the sex slaves for sexually transmitted diseases.
It is also claimed that auctioned girls are "transported globally" by contractors.
Tech writer Joseph Cox attempted to contact the group in 2015 after finding a link to an “auction” on Reddit.
After sending an encrypted email claiming he was “interested in the girl, want to see more photos first”, he was sent an aggressive response: “Who are you, how do you know about us? Who recommended us?”
The pictures of two kidnapped women who were supposedly being auctioned were later revealed to be fake and from porn sites.
While he was initially rebuffed, Cox eventually managed to negotiate with alleged members of the shadowy group.
He was offered a place at an auction if he paid a deposit.
In one email, an alleged member said: "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."
Cox said that advisers at the National Crime Agency said customers at alleged auctions were “unlikely to see their money again.”
He wrote: "Conclusively proving that Black Death is legitimate or fake is impossible without more information.
"If it was a scam site, they made it difficult for me to give them any money. If it was the real deal, then why do it on the dark web, when the trade already functions pretty well in the open?"
Chilling images have emerged showing the suitcase and hellish basement dungeon where Chloe was held captive for a week.
She was reportedly sent by her UK agent from Paris to Milan for the photo shoot on July 11.
But when she arrived at a studio near Milan Central Railway station, she was injected with ketamine – a drug which can cause muscles paralysis – in her arm.
Herba is alleged to have then tied her up and stuffed her inside a bag before driving two hours to Turin, where he chained her up inside a villa, reported.
Her harrowing ordeal worsened when he told her he would kill her if she reported him to police, Italian media reported.
Cops seized him as he was accompanying the model to the British Consulate in the Italian city.
During their investigation, police seized his telephone, photos of the model being offered for sale and his computer which reportedly had encrypted information related to material examined by Europol in a 2016 investigation of the “deep web”.
Herba is believed to have lived alone in a flat in Birmingham. Neighbours reported last seeing him there around three weeks ago.
Neighbours confirmed that Lukasz lived alone in a small block of flats off a residential street in Oldbury, Birmingham.
They reported that police had search the property two weeks ago, but that Lukasz himself had not been there for three weeks.
According to neighbours he would come and go often, speeding up to the front of the building in a red Toyota wearing a suit.
WHAT IS THE 'BLACK DEATH' AND WHAT DID THEY TELL CHLOE AYLING?
The so-called Black Death group is an organisation operating deep within the "dark web" rumoured to be responsible for a network of kidnapping and people trafficking.
The name is notorious on sections of the internet due to the scale and depravity of its offending - though how many of these stories are true is not clear.
It's claimed that users of the "dark web" pay huge fees to see images of - and ultimately buy - captive women.
A 2015 article by Vice's stated their reporter had found images of women chained up with the victim being offered for sale £115,000.
Those behind the group even exchanged messages with the reporter - though a National Crime Agency adviser suggested the photos may be staged.
This is what they told Chloe Ayling in a chilling note: "You are being released as a huge generosity from Black Death Group. Your release does, however, come with a warning and you should read this letter very carefully.
"You are certainly aware of your value on human slavery market and must make a note that this isn’t personal, this is business. For your release we have taken a number of factors into consideration.
"A mistake was made by capturing you, especially considering you are a young mother that should have in no circumstances be lured into kidnapping. Second important factor you are very well aware of is your overall protection by one of our main and very well respected men who made a very clear and solid stance in your case.
"You will, upon your landing in your home country cease any investigation activities related to your kidnapping. You also agreed to sneak a pre-determined set of information in to the media and we will expect to see evidence that has been done in the near future.
"You and your family will, in no way ever talk about us in bad language and without respect. You have been treated fairly, with respect and we expect to hear exactly the same about us in return. You can release any information you have heard from MO while your holding as he would never give you any information that could harm our activities. We will not tolerate lying about anything that has happened.
"You have also agreed to pay outstanding costs of your release of $50,000. We expect that money to be paid in BitCoins within one month.
"Any sort of disobedience with the above will result in your elimination.";
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