A total of 34 people were arrested in Spain in an operation targeting a Nigerian criminal organisation known as ‘Black Axe’, Europol reported in a statement on Friday 9 January.
The European agency estimates that this network, created in the late 1970s in Nigeria, is involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including “cyber-enabled fraud, drug trafficking, human trafficking and prostitution, kidnapping, armed robbery and fraudulent spiritual practices”, which are said to have netted several billion euros. Fraud alone caused more than €5.93 million in damage.
Led by the Spanish National Police and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (Germany), with support from Europol, the arrests were made in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Malaga. The operation resulted in the freezing of nearly €120,000 in bank accounts linked to the organisation and the seizure of more than €66,000 in cash during the searches. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)