Interpol Arrests Over 300 Criminal Suspects Linked to Black Axe, Others

•Confronts global organised criminal network

Our correspondent with agency report

In a coordinated global police raid on an international organised crime network, code-named Operation “Jackal III,” the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL), has apprehended no fewer than 300 suspects linked to Black Axe and other affiliated criminal groups.

The remarkable breakthrough followed a close collaboration of police units around the world, who painstakingly carried out a series of covert operations targeting one of West Africa’s alleged most feared criminal networks, the Black Axe.

An international media outlet BBC, reported that “Operation Jackal III,” saw officers in body armour carry out raids in 21 countries between April and July 2024.

It further noted that Interpol saw the operation as a major blow to the transnational crime network, but warned that its global reach and technological sophistication mean it remains a global threat to the world.

Referencing one notorious example, the media outlet quoted Canadian authorities as saying that they busted a money-laundering scheme linked to Black Axe worth more than $5bn (£3.8bn) in 2017.

A senior official at Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, Tomonobu Kaya, told the medium, “They are very organised and very structured.”

Kaya said innovations in money-transfer software and cryptocurrency have played into the hands of groups, which are renowned for multi-million dollar online scams.

“These criminal syndicates are early adopters of new technologies… A lot of fintech developments make it easy to illegally move money around the world,” he said.

According to a 2022 report by Interpol, “Black Axe and similar groups are responsible for the majority of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud as well as many other serious crimes.”

The report further disclosed that Operation Jackal III was years in the making and led to the seizure of $3m of illegal assets and more than 700 bank accounts being frozen. It added that Many Black Axe members are university-educated and are recruited during their schooling.

“The organisation is a secretive criminal network with trafficking, prostitution, and killing operations around the world. Cyber-crime, targeting individuals and businesses, is the organisation’s largest source of revenue. Multiple so-called “Jackal” police operations have taken place since 2022.

“Dozens of Black Axe and other gang members have been arrested and their electronic devices seized during these transnational raids.

“This work has enabled Interpol to create a vast intelligence database, which is now shared with officers throughout its 196 member countries.

“We need to have data and to collate our findings from these countries to help build a picture of their modus operandi,” the report further disclosed.

The medium said despite multiple international arrests, some experts feel not enough is being done to address the root of these crime syndicates in West Africa.

West Africa Regional Coordinator, Institute for Security Studies, Dr. Oluwole Ojewale, said the emphasis ought to be on prevention, not on outright operations against these criminal groups, if the international policing system must win this war.

Mirroring down to Nigeria, Ojewale said Nigeria, which has witnessed widespread anti-corruption protests in recent weeks, is one of Africa’s largest economies, but has as many as 87 million people living below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

“It is also the main recruitment ground for Black Axe. Interpol said it was carrying out training exercises with key Nigerian stakeholders and police officials. But corruption, and allegations of collusion between Black Axe and local authorities, remain major obstacles. The politicians are actually arming these boys,” Ojewale further revealed.

He averred that the country’s general failure of governance has pressured people to be initiated into Black Axe.

Meanwhile, despite its current global reach, Interpol’s Jackal Operations originated in Ireland. BBC report said that following a series of police raids by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) in 2020, a handful of Black Axe members were arrested, paving the way for the exposure of a far wider network, adding that they were very under the radar, very low-key.

Detective superintendent at the GNECB, which led the operation, Michael Cryan, explained that the amount of money being laundered through Ireland was astronomical.

Cryan said: “The police subsequently identified 1,000 people with links to Black Axe in Ireland and have made hundreds of arrests for fraud and cyber-crime. Bank robberies are now done with laptops – they’re far more sophisticated.”

He estimated that €200 million ($220 million; £170 million) have been stolen online in Ireland in the past five years, and only accounts for the 20 percent of cyber-crimes that are believed to be reported.

“This is not typical or ordinary crime… People who make decisions need to know how serious this is,” he said.

Irish police operations in November 2023 revealed that cryptocurrency – which can be sent rapidly between digital wallets around the world – is becoming an integral element in Black Axe’s money-laundering operations, stressing that more than €1 million in crypto-assets were seized during one operation.

Cryan said Interpol has deployed its new technology in an attempt to tackle these innovations, launching the Global Rapid Intervention of Payments system (I-GRIP).

The mechanism, which enables the authorities in member countries to freeze bank accounts around the world with unprecedented speed, he added was used to halt a $40 million scam targeting a Singaporean business last month.

Noting that technology like this would make it harder for criminals to move money across borders with impunity, Kaya, concluded that “a major effort is under way to gather and share intelligence on Black Axe and other West African syndicates by police around the world. If we can gather this data we can take action.”