Photo Credit: BBC
Police forces from around the world have launched a coordinated crackdown on one of West Africa’s most notorious criminal networks, Black Axe. In a series of covert operations known as “Operation Jackal III,” officers conducted raids across 21 countries between April and July 2024, leading to the arrest of 300 people connected to Black Axe and similar groups.
Interpol, the global policing agency coordinating the operation, described it as a significant strike against the Nigerian crime syndicate. However, they warned that Black Axe’s international reach and advanced use of technology continue to pose a serious global threat. “They are very organized and very structured,” said Tomonobu Kaya, a senior official at Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, in an interview with the BBC.
BBC reported that Black Axe, which has been implicated in a range of serious crimes including cyber-enabled financial fraud, trafficking, and murder, is known for its sophisticated operations. In a particularly infamous case, Canadian authorities in 2017 uncovered a $5 billion money-laundering scheme linked to the group.
Mr. Kaya noted that new technologies, including cryptocurrency and advanced money-transfer software, have made it easier for these criminal networks to move large sums of money across borders undetected.
“These criminal syndicates are early adopters of new technologies,” Kaya explained. “A lot of fintech developments make it really easy to illegally move money around the world.”
Operation Jackal III, which was years in the making, resulted in the seizure of $3 million in illegal assets and the freezing of over 700 bank accounts. Despite these successes, Interpol recognizes that the battle is far from over. “This is not typical or ordinary crime,” said Michael Cryan, detective superintendent at Ireland’s Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB). Cyran said, “People who make decisions need to know how serious this is.”
Cryan, who has been tracking Black Axe since 2020, noted that the group operates with a low profile, making them difficult to detect. “They were very under the radar, very low-key,” he said. He added that the amount of money being laundered through Ireland alone was “astronomical.” He estimates that €200 million has been stolen online in Ireland over the past five years, although this figure only accounts for the 20% of cyber-crimes believed to be reported.
Interpol has been stepping up its own technological efforts to counter these criminal innovations. The agency recently launched the Global Rapid Intervention of Payments system (I-GRIP), which allows authorities in member countries to freeze bank accounts globally at unprecedented speeds. In a recent success, I-GRIP was used to halt a $40 million scam targeting a business in Singapore.
The roots of Interpol’s Jackal Operations can be traced back to Ireland, where a series of police raids by the GNECB in 2020 led to the arrest of several Black Axe members and exposed a far-reaching network. Since then, hundreds of arrests have been made for fraud and cyber-crime, and over €1 million in crypto-assets were seized during a November 2023 operation. This highlights the increasing role of cryptocurrency in Black Axe’s money-laundering activities.
Despite these ongoing efforts, some experts argue that more needs to be done to address the underlying causes of such crime syndicates in West Africa. Dr. Oluwole Ojewale, West Africa Regional Coordinator from the Institute for Security Studies said, “The emphasis must actually be on prevention, not on outright operations against these criminal groups.”
Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies, has become a primary recruitment ground for Black Axe, with widespread poverty and corruption contributing to the problem. Interpol has been conducting training exercises with Nigerian stakeholders and police officials to strengthen local efforts against the syndicate.
However, Dr. Ojewale noted that corruption and allegations of collusion between Black Axe and local authorities remain significant obstacles. “It is the politicians who are actually arming these boys,” he said. “The general failure of governance in the country has made pressures for people to be initiated [into Black Axe].”
As global efforts to combat Black Axe continue, Interpol stresses the importance of gathering and sharing intelligence across its 196 member countries. “If we can gather this data, we can take action,” Kaya emphasized. Despite the challenges, the ongoing international collaboration offers hope for disrupting this powerful and dangerous criminal network.