Crime
World’s police in technological arms race with Nigerian mafia
Nigeria is… major recruitment ground for Black Axe
BBC)
Police units around the world have joined forces in a series of covert operations targeting one of West Africa’s most feared criminal networks – Black Axe.
Operation Jackal III saw officers in body armour carry out raids in 21 countries between April and July 2024.
The mission, co-ordinated by global policing agency Interpol, led to the arrest of 300 people with links to Black Axe and other affiliated groups.
Interpol called the operation a “major blow” to the Nigerian crime network, but warned that its international reach and technological sophistication mean it remains a global threat.
In one notorious example, Canadian authorities said they had busted a money-laundering scheme linked to Black Axe worth more than $5bn (£3.8bn) in 2017.
“They are very organised and very structured,” Tomonobu Kaya, a senior official at Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, told the BBC.
According to a 2022 report by Interpol, “Black Axe and similar groups are responsible for the majority of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud as well as many other serious crimes”.
Mr Kaya said innovations in money-transfer software and cryptocurrency have played into the hands of group, which are renowned for multi-million dollar online scams.
“These criminal syndicates are early adopters of new technologies… A lot of fintech developments make it really easy to illegally move money around the world,” he said.
Operation Jackal III was years in the making and led to the seizure of $3m of illegal assets and more than 700 bank accounts being frozen.
Many Black Axe members are university educated and are recruited during their schooling.
The organisation is a secretive criminal network with trafficking, prostitution and killing operations around the world.
Cyber-crime, targeting individuals and businesses, is the organisation’s largest source of revenue.
Multiple so-called “Jackal” police operations have taken place since 2022.
Dozens of Black Axe and other gang members have been arrested and their electronic devices seized during these transnational raids.
This work has enabled Interpol to create a vast intelligence database, which is now shared with officers throughout its 196 member countries.
“We need to have data and to collate our findings from these countries to help build a picture of their modus operandi,” said Mr Kaya.
Despite multiple international arrests, some experts feel not enough is being done to address the root of these crime syndicates in West Africa.
“The emphasis must actually be on prevention not on outright operations against these criminal groups,” said Dr Oluwole Ojewale, West Africa Regional Co-ordinator from the Institute for Security Studies.
Nigeria, which has witnessed widespread anti-corruption protests in recent weeks, is one of Africa’s largest economies, but has as many as 87 million people living below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. It is also the main recruitment ground for Black Axe.
Interpol said it was carrying out training exercises with key Nigerian stakeholders and police officials. But corruption, and allegations of collusion between Black Axe and local authorities, remain major obstacles.
“It is the politicians who are actually arming these boys,” said Dr Ojewale. “The general failure of governance in the country has made pressures for people to be initiated [into Black Axe].”
Despite its current global reach, Interpol’s Jackal Operations have their origins in Ireland.
Following a series of police raids by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) in 2020, a handful of Black Axe members were arrested, paving the way for the exposure of a far wider network.
“They were very under the radar, very low-key,” said Michael Cryan, detective superintendent at the GNECB, which led the operation.
“The amount of money being laundered through Ireland was astronomical,” he added.
The police subsequently identified 1,000 people with links to Black Axe in Ireland and have made hundreds of arrests for fraud and cyber-crime.
“Bank robberies are now done with laptops – they’re far more sophisticated,” said Det Supt Cryan.
He estimates €200m ($220m; £170m) have been stolen online in Ireland in the past five years, and that only accounts for the 20% of cyber-crimes that are believed to be reported.
“This is not typical or ordinary crime… People who make decisions need to know how serious this is,” he said.
Irish police operations in November 2023 revealed that cryptocurrency – which can be sent rapidly between digital wallets around the world – is becoming an integral element in Black Axe’s money-laundering operations.
More than €1m in crypto-assets were seized during one operation.
Interpol has deployed its own new technology in an attempt to tackle these innovations, launching the Global Rapid Intervention of Payments system (I-GRIP).
The mechanism, which enables the authorities in member countries to freeze bank accounts around the world with unprecedented speed, was used to halt a $40m scam targeting a Singaporean business last month.
Interpol’s Mr Kaya said technology like this would make it harder for criminals to move money across borders with impunity.
A major effort is under way to gather and share intelligence on Black Axe and other West African syndicates by police around the world.
“If we can gather this data we can take action,” he said.
The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, commends all operatives involved in these high-profile arrests for their professionalism, diligence, and dedication to upholding Nigeria’s international law enforcement obligations.
The Nigeria Police Force has recorded a significant breakthrough in its fight against transnational organized crime with the arrest of two internationally wanted fugitives: Felix Omoregie alias “Eghosa Johnson Omoregie,” a suspected ringleader of a human trafficking syndicate wanted by Belgian authorities, and Okwudili Sabastine Ezeje, a key member of a Dubai-based armed robbery gang
In a statement dated May 7, 2025, with the reference number Ref No. CZ.5300/FPRD/FHQ/ABJ/VOL.6/433, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, Force PRO, Force HQ Abuja, said: “Felix Omoregie, the alleged mastermind of a large-scale human trafficking operation, had been declared wanted by the Belgian authorities through an INTERPOL Red Notice issued on 19th December 2023, and was arrested in Benin City, Edo State, following diligent intelligence and enforcement efforts by Police operatives.
He is scheduled to be arraigned at the Federal High Court in Benin City.
Omoregie is accused of trafficking young Nigerian women, including minors, to Italy and subsequently dispersing them across Europe for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Victims were subjected to voodoo-based oaths and psychological coercion, with fabricated debts ranging between €20,000 and €50,000 used to manipulate and control them.
His criminal network involved handlers in Brussels and France who managed the victims’ activities and remitted proceeds to him.
Following a conviction in absentia in Belgium in 2021 for multiple counts of aggravated human trafficking and criminal organization leadership, Omoregie fled to Nigeria.
Upon his arrest, a search of his premises revealed incriminating materials, including a photocopy of a passport intended for a planned relocation to Canada.
In a separate operation, the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB), Abuja, apprehended 37-year-old Okwudili Sabastine Ezeje at a hideout in Nsukka, Enugu State.
Ezeje is wanted by authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a series of serious crimes, including armed robbery, cultism, drug trafficking, and other organized criminal activities.
Intelligence gathered reveals that Ezeje continued to coordinate criminal operations remotely from Nigeria.
He has been directly linked to several high-profile robberies in Dubai and Sharjah, including an armed robbery at a grocery store in Dubai Mall, a targeted hit on Al Ansari Exchange in Jumeirah, and another heist at a Bureau de Change in Jebel Ali Village.
The arrest was the result of strategic intelligence sharing and operational collaboration between the Nigeria Police Force, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), and the Dubai Police.
The arraignment of Okwudili Ezeje is expected to take place shortly.
The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, commends all operatives involved in these high-profile arrests for their professionalism, diligence, and dedication to upholding Nigeria’s international law enforcement obligations.
The Nigeria Police Force remains committed to enhancing its global policing partnerships and ensuring that fugitives find no safe haven within our borders.
These arrests serve as a clear message that criminal elements, no matter how far they run or how long they hide, will be brought to justice.
The Force calls on citizens to remain vigilant and cooperative in the fight against organized crime, both at home and abroad.”
…..Reiterates Commitment towards International Partnership
The Nigeria Police Force has recorded a significant breakthrough in its fight against transnational organized crime with the arrest of two internationally wanted fugitives:
Felix Omoregie alias “Eghosa Johnson Omoregie,” a suspected ringleader of a human trafficking syndicate wanted by Belgian authorities, and Okwudili Sabastine Ezeje, a key member of a Dubai-based armed robbery gang.
Felix Omoregie, the alleged mastermind of a large-scale human trafficking operation, had been declared wanted by the Belgian authorities through an INTERPOL Red Notice issued on 19th December 2023, and was arrested in Benin City, Edo State, following diligent intelligence and enforcement efforts by Police operatives.
He is scheduled to be arraigned at the Federal High Court in Benin City. Omoregie is accused of trafficking young Nigerian women—including minors—to Italy and subsequently dispersing them across Europe for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Victims were subjected to voodoo-based oaths and psychological coercion, with fabricated debts ranging between €20,000 and €50,000 used to manipulate and control them.
His criminal network involved handlers in Brussels and France who managed the victims’ activities and remitted proceeds to him.
Following a conviction in absentia in Belgium in 2021 for multiple counts of aggravated human trafficking and criminal organization leadership, Omoregie fled to Nigeria.
Upon his arrest, a search of his premises revealed incriminating materials, including a photocopy of a passport intended for a planned relocation to Canada.
In a separate operation, the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB), Abuja, apprehended 37-year-old Okwudili Sabastine Ezeje at a hideout in Nsukka, Enugu State.
Ezeje is wanted by authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a series of serious crimes including armed robbery, cultism, drug trafficking, and other organized criminal activities.
Intelligence gathered reveals that Ezeje continued to coordinate criminal operations remotely from Nigeria.
He has been directly linked to several high-profile robberies in Dubai and Sharjah, including an armed robbery at a grocery store in Dubai Mall, a targeted hit on Al Ansari Exchange in Jumeirah, and another heist at a Bureau de Change in Jebel Ali Village.
The arrest was the result of strategic intelligence sharing and operational collaboration between the Nigeria Police Force, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), and the Dubai Police.
The arraignment of Okwudili Ezeje is expected to take place shortly.
The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, Ph.D., NPM., commends all operatives involved in these high-profile arrests for their professionalism, diligence, and dedication to upholding Nigeria’s international law enforcement obligations.
The Nigeria Police Force remains committed to enhancing its global policing partnerships and ensuring that fugitives find no safe haven within our borders.
These arrests serve as a clear message that criminal elements, no matter how far they run or how long they hide, will be brought to justice.
The Force calls on citizens to remain vigilant and cooperative in the fight against organized crime, both at home and abroad.
Government’s second witness in the ongoing trial of Biafra nation agitator, Nnamdi Kanu says the secessionist leader is the founder of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and operator of Radio Biafra.
At the resumed hearing on the matter, the second prosecution witness, identified as BBB, testified that he was assigned by the then Attorney General of the Federation to investigate Kanu.
But attempts by the prosecution to tender a letter authorising the investigation was objected by Agabi on grounds that the document was not front loaded.
This prompted the prosecution’s withdrawal of the document, a request granted by the court.
The court, therefore, ordered that all materials intended for the trial must be served in advance and listed properly, stressing that no document would be admitted unless previously disclosed to the defence.
In another aspect, the presiding judge, James Omotosho, has instructed that only 16 out of the 26 listed would be recognised in court.
This followed a bit of confusion about legal representation, where a certain Charles Ude claimed to be a member of Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team.
But lead defence counsel, Kanu Agabi, SAN, disassociated the team from Ude’s claim, with Kanu affirming that Agabi remains his official legal representative.
Similarly, the court has barred a relative of the defendant, Favour Kano, from attending three successive proceedings of the court, after she admitted doing a live stream while the judge was seated.
Justice Omotosho revealed she had also posted the content online. The matter was subsequently adjourned to May 7 for the continuation of the examination-in-chief of the second prosecution witness.
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