Overview

• The gang traces its roots to Nigerian university confraternities and now operates as a mafia-style network with an estimated 30,000 members across dozens of countries.
• Black Axe targets debt-burdened British and Irish students and professionals by offering fast cash before enforcing brutal initiation rituals involving stripping, torture and blood-drinking.
• Recruits are pressed into service as money mules, exploiting digital-only fintech banks and disappearing-message apps such as Snapchat to transfer and conceal illicit funds.
• Ireland’s Operation Skein identified 1,400 affiliates, prosecuted over 300 suspects, cautioned 39 juveniles and traced more than 1,000 money mule accounts.
• Interpol’s Operation Jackal III coordinated the arrest of over 300 suspected members, froze more than 700 bank accounts and recovered £2.24 million in stolen assets.