South Africa has extradited six Nigerians to the US suspected of being members of the Black Axe organized crime network, where they are wanted on wire fraud and money laundering charges, police said on Saturday.

The six men are accused of targeting more than 100 women in the US through online romance scams and defrauding them of more than 100 million rand ($5.8 million). According to South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, the alleged victims included pensioners and businesspeople who were drawn into online relationships before being persuaded to part with their money.

Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale said the investigation had taken several years because the alleged crimes were committed online and investigators had to trace the flow of money back to individual suspects. “There had to be proper investigation and proper money trail to be traced back to individual suspects,” she said.

Mogale noted that romance scams are often carried out by individuals, but said that the suspects had turned the scheme into “an actual regular business.” 

The suspects were handed over to officials from the FBI and US Secret Service at Cape Town International Airport on Friday. They were transferred to the airport from a correctional facility in Cape Town with the assistance of Interpol South Africa before departing for the US on a 16-hour flight.

The six were among eight Nigerian nationals arrested in South Africa in 2021 during a major operation by the Hawks. In February 2024, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court ruled that the suspects could be extradited to the US. Two others arrested in the same operation were Enorense Izevbiege and Toriseju Gabriel Otubu. Izevbiege was subsequently sent to the states, while Otubu was granted bail of 210,000 rand under court-imposed conditions.

Black Axe traces its roots to a student movement founded at Nigeria’s University of Benin in 1977 and has since developed into a transnational criminal network linked to cyber fraud, money laundering and other crimes. The group has been the target of several international crackdowns, including an Interpol operation in 2024 that resulted in around 300 arrests across 21 countries.

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