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Five alleged leaders of Black Axe’s Cape Town, South Africa, branch have been extradited to the United States to face federal charges in Trenton, New Jersey. A 2021 indictment charges Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Edosa Osagiede, Osariemen Eric Clement, Collins Owhofasa Otughwor, and Musa Mudashiru with wire fraud, money laundering, and identity-theft-related offenses arising from alleged activity between 2011 and their 2021 arrests.
Prosecutors allege the defendants used false identities on social-media and dating platforms to conduct romance and advance-fee scams against more than 100 victims, inventing travel, construction, inheritance, and medical emergencies to obtain money. The operation allegedly also used sextortion threats involving sensitive photographs and laundered proceeds through South African companies, victim-controlled bank accounts, and funds tied to business-email-compromise schemes. The extraditions are part of multinational enforcement against Black Axe, which the FBI describes as a violent transnational criminal organization headquartered in Benin City, Nigeria, with operations spanning dozens of countries.
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A multinational operation arrested 58 people and identified 263 suspects, including alleged Black Axe members; authorities also seized millions in assets. Some arrestees were alleged to have supplied money-laundering services and website domains to Black Axe.
A U.S. indictment charged the five defendants with wire-fraud and money-laundering offenses related to the alleged Cape Town-based romance-scam operation.
South African authorities arrested Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Edosa Osagiede, Osariemen Eric Clement, Collins Owhofasa Otughwor, and Musa Mudashiru. Authorities allege their fraud activity continued until those arrests.
Prosecutors allege that Black Axe's Cape Town Zone began conducting romance and advance-fee fraud against victims, using false identities and financial accounts or business entities to obtain and conceal funds.
The U.S. Department of Justice published information on aliases and business entities allegedly used by Cape Town Zone members and encouraged potential victims to contact the FBI.
The United States extradited five alleged leaders of Black Axe's Cape Town branch from South Africa to face federal charges in New Jersey, including wire fraud, money laundering, and identity-theft-related offenses.
Swiss and German law-enforcement authorities arrested 10 suspected Black Axe members during raids in both countries.
Spanish authorities arrested 34 alleged cybercriminals, including purported Black Axe leaders, in an investigation involving adversary-in-the-middle scams, business-email compromise, money laundering, and vehicle trafficking.
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Swiss authorities arrested 10 suspected members of the Nigerian criminal organisation **Black Axe** in coordinated raids across several cantons, including the group’s alleged Regional Head for Southern Europe. Prosecutors and police in Zurich said the suspects were tied to **romance scams**, other cyber-enabled fraud schemes, and **money laundering** that caused losses of millions of Swiss francs. The Swiss-led investigation was carried out with German law enforcement and supported by **Europol**, which provided intelligence analysis, cross-border coordination, and a data sprint in Madrid to map the group’s structure and links to related cases, including in Spain. Authorities described Black Axe as a highly structured transnational network with global reach and criminal proceeds estimated in the billions of euros, and said the operation aimed to disrupt its distributed model and support asset seizures with assistance from the EU-funded **@ON Network**.
Jun 29, 2026
Spanish National Police, in collaboration with German authorities and Europol, arrested 34 individuals linked to the Black Axe criminal organization in a coordinated operation across Seville, Madrid, Málaga, and Barcelona. The suspects, primarily of Nigerian origin, are accused of orchestrating large-scale cyber fraud schemes, including business email compromise (BEC), romance scams, and phishing attacks, resulting in nearly €6 million in losses in Spain alone. Authorities seized cash, electronic devices, vehicles, and froze significant sums in bank accounts during the raids, while also uncovering the group's strategy of recruiting vulnerable locals as money mules to launder illicit proceeds. The Black Axe group, originating from Nigeria and now boasting an estimated 30,000 members worldwide, has been implicated in a range of criminal activities, with cyber-enabled fraud as a major revenue stream. The investigation revealed that the Spanish cell was part of a broader European network, using sophisticated man-in-the-middle (MITM) tactics to intercept and redirect corporate payments. Four main suspects have been placed in pretrial detention, facing charges including aggravated fraud, money laundering, and membership in a criminal organization, while authorities continue to pursue additional leads and potential arrests.
Jun 29, 2026
The United States extradited Nigerian nationals **Adebola Festus Adekunle** and **Mudasiru Afeez Olawale** to face separate federal prosecutions over alleged financially motivated sextortion schemes targeting U.S. minors. Prosecutors allege the schemes contributed to the deaths of teenagers in Mississippi and North Carolina; the defendants face charges including sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, coercion, extortion, and child sexual abuse material offenses. The arrests and extraditions were conducted through **Operation Artemis**, an FBI-led initiative targeting Nigeria-based sextortion networks, with assistance from Nigerian authorities. Adekunle and Olawale entered U.S. custody and made initial court appearances in Mississippi and North Carolina; some counts carry potential life sentences, while Adekunle's charge of sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death has a mandatory minimum 30-year sentence.
Aug 31, 2026