Overview
- Interpol South Africa and the Hawks handed the six suspects to FBI and U.S. Secret Service officials at Cape Town International Airport on Friday, September 11, 2026, for transport to the United States.
- The men were arrested in Cape Town in 2021 after a Hawks takedown and are wanted in U.S. courts on wire fraud and money‑laundering charges tied to online romance scams.
- South African police say the suspects are accused of targeting more than 100 U.S. women and defrauding them of over R100 million through long, fabricated online relationships and payment requests.
- The handover follows coordinated cross-border work by the Hawks, Interpol and U.S. agencies and mirrors a wider Interpol operation earlier in 2026 that led to dozens of arrests and frozen assets in South Africa.
- Prosecutors in the United States will now move to try the suspects and to trace funds and seized assets linked to the alleged Black Axe schemes with help from international partners.