Gardaí set sights on leader of notorious Nigerian ‘Black Axe’ gang

The leader of the Nigerian mafia-like ‘Black Axe’ gang in Ireland is a “major target” for gardaí according to a senior member of the force, who said that they’re arresting members of the violent mob “every week” with an estimated 1,100 people linked to the organisation in Ireland.

The west African man, aged in his 50s with a house in Dublin, has built up a fortune as the leader of the Black Axe gang in Ireland. He’s understood to have over 70 ‘lieutenants’ working directly under him in Ireland as part of the gang’s vast network.

The Black Axe gang is cult-like group that has engaged in human trafficking, extensive cyber-crime and murder. It has a large presence in Ireland, with up to a third of arrests during a global crackdown on the gang last year taking place here.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Detective Chief Superintendent Nigel Mulleady described the leader as a “very good conman” who has become the prime target for the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB).

“The gang are behind a significant amount of cyber crime and fraud committed here. We are arresting members of the organisation every week,” he said.

Det Chief Supt Mulleady said that as of last June, gardaí had made 377 arrests related to the Black Axe gang, but that that figure is now “far higher” as a result of weekly arrests.

As well as direct members, over 800 ‘money-mules’, often students, who move illegally-gotten money through their accounts on the gang’s behalf in return for a payment, have been identified in Ireland, but gardaí believe there could be as many as 4,000.

Interpol targeted the gang as part of ‘Operation Jackal’ last year, with the gardaí’s co-operating ‘Operation Skein’ revealing the extent of the criminals’ workings in Ireland.

Cybercrime involving investment and romance scams, as well as Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud has yielded tens of millions for Black Axe, with their cybercrime operations flourishing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Started on a university campus in Nigeria in the 1970s, the “campus cult” or secret society has become a globe-spanning network with an estimated 30,000 members in ‘branches’ on almost every continent. Ireland has become a stronghold for them, with 226 people last year the victims of investment fraud.

The average amount of money each victim lost was between €40,000 and €50,000.

“The people who commit these crimes, it’s very easy for them. They are not standing in front of someone with a knife or a gun. They do not see the devastation and destruction they leave behind when people are left with nothing,” Det Chief Supt Mulleady said.

Men are the gang’s primary target when it comes to investment fraud, while women are targeted when it comes to romance scams. Gang members monitor their targets’ social media activity, so as to imitate their likes and interests, before using ‘scripts’ to manipulate people.

It is believed €7 million has been stolen in romance fraud in Ireland in the past five years, but that is only based on people who have come forward to report the crime. The real figure is possibly far higher.

The Black Axe gang’s most notorious violent crime took place in 1999, when it carried out what has since come to be known as the Obafemi Awolowo University massacre.

An organised 40-man Black Axe death squad dressed in black and wielding hatchets and shotguns killed five students and injured a further 11. All attackers were students of the same university.