The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) has announced the arrest of over 300 individuals linked to Black Axe, one of West Africa’s most notorious criminal networks, and its affiliated groups.
This revelation came after the conclusion of a series of covert operations under the code name “Operation Jackal III,” conducted across 21 countries between April and July 2024.
During these operations, INTERPOL seized approximately $3 million in illegal assets and froze over 700 bank accounts. The international police force labeled the operation as a “major blow” to the Nigerian crime network, emphasizing the group’s global reach and technological sophistication.
Black Axe, described by INTERPOL as a highly coordinated cybercrime group, has been held responsible for a significant portion of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud and other serious crimes.
In a 2022 report, INTERPOL highlighted that groups like Black Axe are behind the majority of global cyber-financial frauds, posing a grave threat to global security.
The group is said to have been recruiting university-educated members during their time in school, integrating them into its criminal operations. Many of these members have been implicated in multi-million dollar online scams, often utilizing advanced financial technologies and cryptocurrencies to facilitate their crimes.
Tomonobu Kaya, a senior official at INTERPOL’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, underlined the critical role that fintech and cryptocurrency play in enabling the operations of such cybercrime syndicates.
“They are very organized and very structured. These criminal syndicates are early adopters of new technologies… A lot of fintech developments make it easy to illegally move money around the world,” Kaya said.
The extent of Black Axe’s criminal activities is vast, with one example cited by Canadian authorities revealing a money-laundering scheme linked to the group worth over $5 billion (£3.8bn) in 2017.
In response to the growing threat posed by such sophisticated criminal networks, INTERPOL has also launched the Global Rapid Intervention of Payments system. This initiative empowers authorities across its 196-member countries to freeze bank accounts globally with unprecedented speed, thereby disrupting the financial infrastructure of these criminal enterprises.
The successful execution of “Operation Jackal III” marks a significant step in the global fight against cybercrime, but INTERPOL has warned that the threat from groups like Black Axe remains significant, with their ability to exploit emerging technologies posing ongoing challenges for international law enforcement agencies.