La Nigerian mafia was born in Nigeria in the late 80s, spread like wildfire to Niger, Benin and the rest of the world and manages the trafficking of heroin and cocaine, begging and prostitution of Nigerians held in slavery. The structural model of organized crime in Nigeria is made up of autonomous groups that are loose and, at the same time, dependent on a single summit. It is a system in which more structured criminal cells are accompanied by contingent cells which, unlike the previous ones, are born in correspondence with a single criminal affair. Criminal groups are male, especially for drug trafficking and telematic scams, female as regards the exploitation of prostitution with the figure of Mrs., typically former victims of trafficking who manage the exploitation of prostitution. One of the most frequent initiation rites is to undergo whipping by the "head" of the organization. Also in Italy it has already taken root since the eighties doing important business with Cosa Nostra. The most dangerous and violent organization is that of the Black Ax born in the 70s in Benin City in Nigeria. Prominent elements of this criminal organization are already present in many Italian cities such as Turin, Novara, Alessandria, Verona, Bologna, Milan, Rome, Naples and Palermo.
Investigations in Italy
The Italian security services, Aisi since 2013 controls the alleged head of the Eyie brotherhood, Grabriel Ugiagbe who manages his criminal affairs from Catania, then moving to Northern Italy, Austria and Spain. The main office in Italy is Castelvolturno. Their roots in Italy have emerged in the course of several investigations, which have confirmed the "mafia nature" of the faction, confirmed by various sentences. The strongest and most dangerous group remains the "Black Ax“,“ Whose associative link - underline the analysts of Dia - is enhanced by a strong mystical-religious component ”. The drugs, stored in the laboratories of Central African countries, reach Italy through various routes, both by air, sea or land. With this route, the drug traffickers exploit, in fact, the channels already used in the past for the smuggling of weapons, ivory and precious stones. Equally “articulated” and characterized by “particular violence” are the management of human trafficking and prostitution. Recent surveys have documented, for example, how young women, even minors - attracted with the false promise of a job in Europe - are concentrated in Libya, subjected to violence and rape and sent to the Italian coasts. Often to bind them to pay the debt incurred for the trip they are subject to woodoo rites, with death threats. Nigerian groups were also active in the transport to northern Europe - via Ventimiglia - of refugees and illegal immigrants from Syria, Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea. The ability to interact with the reference organizations in the countries of origin and with multinational cartels remains strong, of which they represent, in most cases, "detached operative cells, functional to the carrying out of offenses". Il Mattino, recently, told in an article that an international task force works on the Nigerian mafia which, since last July, has seen the FBI, the Italian police, and the Sco coordinating the work of the Caserta mobile teams. , Rome, Palermo and Turin and that, soon, the Canadian police could also be involved. Retracing an anomalous transit of money from the American cities, strongholds of the black mafia, the investigations of the American federal agents have crossed paths with the investigation that, for years now, has committed the DDA of Naples on the Casertano front. From Atlanta, New York City and Chicago, a constant flow of money was monitored between prominent figures in the Vicking, Eyes and Black Axes, the main Nigerian organized crime groups active in the US, and African immigrants who they live in poverty on the Litorale Domitio. Using the money transfer with Western Union, but also prepaid paypal, bigwigs of the black mafia have made the money of various types of illegal activities pass through Castel Volturno. The Campania coast is a crossroads of human beings, it is now a historical and well-known fact, but also of flows of money conveyed by African organized crime. It was by re-tying those threads that the FBI agents visited Italy in the summer and, in the autumn, the Italian police in charge of the investigation went to New York for an exchange of information. The Nigerian headmasters residing in the US also use underground banking channels or deep web financial services. Intercepting those flows of money the DDA and the American police forces have found a common thread between North America, Canada and the Litorale Domitio where sums of money from "depository" coming from the black bosses living on the accounts of unsuspecting immigrants arrive in the big American cities and in Canada. Money that could partly come from the massive drug deal that the black mafia runs in Europe and in at least two other continents, and that serve to finance the main business: trafficking in human beings. To bribe officials, pay the ferrymers who accompany the victims along the journey that goes back to Africa from the Ivory Coast, from Niger and other countries of the black continent, need a lot of money and, apparently, the organized crime that has principal in Benin City has large quantities. Some girls have managed to pay the "debt" with the Nigerian mafia and have regained their freedom after having put together oscillating figures between 15mila and 20mila euro. «The most beautiful are sent to the north», they say, «the others remain on the Domitiana». But not only: there is also the phenomenon of organ trafficking. The trafficking that fuels organ trafficking, writes Il Mattino, remains a phenomenon to be explored. It is not possible to establish how many people disappear from African villages at the hands of the black mafia. Surveys not too dated, dating back to 2010, have established some of the figures that move the business: a kidney "costs" 12 million naira, the Nigerian currency, or 60 thousand euros. In Lagos, several times, the police have found women segregated and forced to give birth to children who are then destined for the trafficking of children, the sex trade or the sale of organs.
Recent surveys in France
French police reported dismantling a network of prostitution and trafficking of Nigerians suspected of collecting and laundering tens of millions of euros across the country. Thirty Nigerian nationals were arrested during two rounds of judicial police raids in June and September following a 15-month investigation.
The police identified the suspicions that they collected money from young Nigerian women who prostituted themselves in different cities throughout France, police officials said, estimating the money between the 30 and the 50 million in the last three years.
“They were transferring money from Lille, Colmar, Strasbourg, Lyon, Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes or Paris,” said the head of the anti-traffic agency OCTREH, Jean-Marc Droguet. A hairdresser and a grocery store in northern Paris were used as collection points for the money before it was handed over to couriers hiding the money in double-bottomed suitcases and preparing to leave the country. Couriers sometimes passed through other European capitals and African countries to avoid suspicion, officials said, but the money was always destined for Nigeria.
What does the EU Commission do?
The fight against drug trafficking and trafficking in human beings is a priority for the Commission, which is aware of the involvement of the Nigerian mafia in human trafficking and the exploitation of prostitution in Italy and other Member States. Initiatives undertaken by Member States to combat drug trafficking from Colombia and trafficking in human beings are coordinated within the EU policy cycle to tackle organized crime and serious international crime, to also involving EU institutions and agencies, third countries and organizations. The ETUTU project counteracts the trafficking of Nigerians within the EU. Europol has taken significant actions in recent years, such as the December 2017 visit to Nigeria to strengthen cooperation between Member States and the Nigerian authorities, and further initiatives are being implemented. Other actions are prepared under the European Union Trust Fund for Africa and the Regional Indicative Program for West Africa, such as the current support for the Regional Action Plan on Illicit Drug Trafficking, Crime organized and illicit drug use in West Africa.
A number of new regional projects have just been launched, such as:
"Organized crime: West African response to illicit trafficking", with particular attention to drug and arms trafficking and trafficking in human beings. "Organized crime: West African response to money laundering and terrorist financing" (OCWAR projects). In July, 2018 launched an EU action against trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants in Nigeria.
In addition, the Commission provides financial aid to the Center for Analysis and Operations against Maritime Narcotics (MAOC-N), an intergovernmental forum for multilateral cooperation that aims to suppress drug trafficking by maritime and airborne means, particularly in the Atlantic.
The Commission funds the most important drug-trafficking projects and programs in Colombia through EU cooperation programs and cooperates closely with international organizations in this field.
The Union maintains a regular dialogue between experts in the field of drugs with the countries of CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), including Colombia, and has also agreed on drug-related action plans with some countries / regions in Latin America, the Caribbean and West Africa along the cocaine trafficking route.