Organised crime in Nigeria encompasses fraud, banditry, drug trafficking, and racketeering, with groups operating across Western Africa and globally. Nigerian criminal gangs rose to prominence in the 1980s, often organized along familial and ethnic lines rather than a mafia model. Notable groups include the Area Boys in Lagos and confraternities like the Neo Black Movement of Africa, which have spread to Europe, Canada, and the United States.
CRIMENET has extracted 18 linkages for this organization, including 17 cooperative ties across 9 organizations, 1 conflicts across 1 organization and footprints in 10 countries.
Police in Toronto became aware of the presence of the Black Axe gang in 2013. The gang exerts influence over Canada's Nigerian expatriate community and is predominantly involved in scamming. Authorities estimate the Black Axe's membership in the country at approximately two-hundred.
The Nigerian mafia in France is involved in the sex trafficking of Nigerian women and girls, as well as heroin trafficking, in which they have collaborated with Chinese triads and other groups.
The Nigerian mafia is responsible for the smuggling and pimping of the majority of the African women working as prostitutes in Germany.
Nigerians are among the major players in the narcotics trade in Goa and Mumbai. The coast of north Goa provides an entry point of South American cocaine for Nigerian traffickers, who have come into conflict with Indian gangs.
Nigerian dealers are credited with introducing crack cocaine to Ireland in the early 2000s. Europol have identified Nigerian organised crime gangs as being responsible for trafficking children from Nigeria to Ireland for work in the sex trade.
The Nigerian mafia has a strong presence throughout Italy. Castel Volturno in Campania is considered the headquarters of the Nigerian mafia in Europe.
The Nigerian mafia in Tokyo engages in heroin dealing with the yakuza, the prostitution of Filipino women, money laundering, car theft and arranging fake marriages, amongst other crimes.
Nigerian organised crime groups established roots in South Africa in the mid-1990s following the end of apartheid, and operate primarily in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
Nigerian drug trafficking organisations began operating in Thailand as early as the late 1980s, using the nation as a base for trafficking heroin to other Asian countries, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, and then onward to the United States and Europe.
law enforcement officials who have investigated members in recent years, for example in Canada, the UK and Italy are convinced that the movement has strayed far from its original path.