Police units worldwide have collaborated in a series of covert operations targeting one of West Africa’s most notorious criminal organizations, Black Axe.
Operation Jackal III involved officers in body armor executing raids across 21 countries from April to July 2024.
Coordinated by the global policing agency Interpol, the operation resulted in the arrest of 300 individuals connected to Black Axe and other affiliated groups.
Interpol described the operation as a “significant blow” to the Nigerian crime network. However, they cautioned that Black Axe’s international reach and advanced technological capabilities mean it continues to pose a global threat.
Notably, Canadian authorities reported in 2017 the dismantling of a Black Axe-linked money-laundering scheme valued at over $5 billion (£3.8 billion).
“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 Interpol report, “Black Axe and similar groups are responsible for the majority of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud, along with many other serious crimes.”
Mr. Kaya noted that advancements in money-transfer technology and cryptocurrency have significantly benefited these groups, which are infamous for orchestrating multi-million dollar online scams.
“These criminal syndicates are quick to embrace new technologies. Many fintech innovations make it alarmingly easy to move money illegally across borders,” he explained.
The ultra-violent cult turned global mafia, Black Axe, has been the target of Operation Jackal III, a years-long initiative that resulted in the seizure of $3 million in illegal assets and the freezing of over 700 bank accounts.
Many members of Black Axe are university-educated individuals who are recruited while still in school. The organization operates as a covert criminal network involved in trafficking, prostitution, and murder worldwide.
Cyber-crime, which targets both individuals and businesses, is the primary source of revenue for Black Axe. Since 2022, multiple “Jackal” police operations have led to numerous arrests and the confiscation of electronic devices from Black Axe members and other gang affiliates.
These raids have allowed Interpol to build an extensive intelligence database, now shared among its 196 member countries.
“We need to gather and analyze data from these countries to better understand their methods,” Mr. Kaya stated.
Despite these international efforts, some experts argue that more needs to be done to address the underlying issues fueling 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, one of Africa’s largest economies, has recently experienced widespread anti-corruption protests. Despite its economic size, the World Bank reports that up to 87 million Nigerians live below the poverty line.
Additionally, Nigeria is a major recruitment base for the Black Axe group. Interpol has been conducting training exercises with Nigerian authorities and police officials, but corruption and claims of collusion between Black Axe and local authorities continue to be significant challenges.
“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].”
Although Interpol’s Jackal Operations now have a global reach, they originally began in Ireland. In 2020, a series of police raids conducted by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) led to the arrest of several Black Axe members, which uncovered a much larger 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 have identified 1,000 individuals with connections to Black Axe in Ireland and have conducted hundreds of arrests related to fraud and cyber-crime. According to Det Supt Cryan, “Bank robberies are now executed using laptops and are far more sophisticated than before.”
He estimates that €200 million ($220 million; £170 million) have been stolen online in Ireland over the past five years, a figure that represents only 20% of the cyber-crimes believed to be reported.
“This isn’t typical crime; it’s a serious issue that decision-makers need to fully grasp,” Cryan emphasized. Irish police operations in November 2023 uncovered that cryptocurrency, which facilitates rapid transfers between digital wallets globally, has become a key tool in Black Axe’s money-laundering schemes. During one operation, more than €1 million in crypto-assets was seized.
In response, Interpol has introduced the Global Rapid Intervention of Payments system (I-GRIP), a new technology designed to quickly freeze bank accounts worldwide.
This system was recently employed to disrupt a $40 million scam targeting a Singaporean business. Interpol’s Mr. Kaya stated that such technology will make it increasingly difficult for criminals to move money across borders without detection.
A global effort is underway to collect and share intelligence on Black Axe and other West African criminal networks. “If we can consolidate this data, we can take decisive action,” he said.
(BBC)
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