German police have arrested 11 Nigerian men suspected of being in a mafia group who orchestrated large-scale dating scams.
The Black Axe gang was involved in “multiple areas of criminal activity” globally, Bavarian police said in a statement.
In Germany, the organisation focuses on romance scams and money laundering, the force added.
The statement said: “Using false identities, the fraudsters for example signalled their intention to marry and in the course of further contact repeatedly demand money under various pretexts.”
Globally, the gang’s main areas of operation were “human-trafficking, fraud, money-laundering, prostitution and drug-trafficking”.
The arrested suspects all hold Nigerian citizenship and are aged between 29 and 53.
They were detained on Tuesday in raids across the region of Bavaria following a police probe that lasted more than two years.
A 2021 BBC investigation of Black Axe unearthed evidence that the group had infiltrated politics in Nigeria and ran a killing operation spanning the globe.
In 2017, Canadian authorities broke up a money-laundering scheme linked to Black Axe worth in excess of $5bn – hinting at the scale of the gang’s global financial operations. Nobody knows how many similar schemes are out there, the leaked documents show members communicating between Lagos, London, Tokyo, Dubai, and a dozen other countries.
In Nigeria, the Black Axe is better known for its street level crime and brutality and alleged links to politics and business. But the nature of the connections has long been murky and unsubstantiated.
A former member of the Edo State government, speaking to the international media for the first time, told the BBC Black Axe membership is widespread within the halls of power.
“If you sat me down and say: ‘Can you identify Black Axe in government?’ I will identify,” said Tony Kabaka, who told the BBC he had survived repeated assassination attempts since leaving government and whose house and front gate are littered with bullet holes.
“Most politicians, almost everybody is involved,” he said.
We sent the government of Edo State the allegations that they have ties to the Black Axe, but they did not respond.
The “Black Axe” gang has been operating for decades in Nigeria and is among the country’s most-feared organised crime syndicates. Membership of these syndicates, known as “cults” or “fraternities”, is outlawed in Nigeria.
Credit: BBC Africa