Operating in the shadows, Nigerian gangs in Paris have become a growing concern for law enforcement.
These secretive criminal networks are characterized by their strict codes, violent initiation rituals, and rigid hierarchies that enforce unwavering loyalty among their members. The increasing influence of these gangs has prompted heightened vigilance from Parisian police.
According to lemonde.fr, In France, little is known about the Nigerian “cults,” former university student fraternities that contorted into genuine criminal mafias. According to several investigative services, their influence is gradually spreading across the country.
In Paris, their presence has not yet been documented, and existing Nigerian gangs unaffiliated with the “cults” – but which may be paving the way for their future presence – still only occupy a “limited market segment in the Paris metropolitan area, coming up against locally well-established networks,” according to a very detailed note drawn up by the Parisian judicial police, consulted by Le Monde.
The example of Marseille is a cause for concern for judicial police investigators, especially as the number of Nigerian suspects involved in drug trafficking, while still marginal, almost tripled between 2021 (20 individuals) and 2023 (59).
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In and around Marseille, Nigerians began by working for well-established drug trafficking networks, starting at the bottom of the ladder as lookouts or street dealers.
Police officers patrol Paris, August 11, 2024. DAR YASIN / AP
They are discreet, secretive criminal organizations, bound together by codes, extremely brutal initiation rites and a hierarchical structure demanding blind obedience. In France, little is known about the Nigerian “cults,” former university student fraternities that contorted into genuine criminal mafias. According to several investigative services, their influence is gradually spreading across the country.
In Paris, their presence has not yet been documented, and existing Nigerian gangs unaffiliated with the “cults” – but which may be paving the way for their future presence – still only occupy a “limited market segment in the Paris metropolitan area, coming up against locally well-established networks,” according to a very detailed note drawn up by the Parisian judicial police, consulted by Le Monde.
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The example of Marseille is a cause for concern for judicial police investigators, especially as the number of Nigerian suspects involved in drug trafficking, while still marginal, almost tripled between 2021 (20 individuals) and 2023 (59).
In and around Marseille, Nigerians began by working for well-established drug trafficking networks, starting at the bottom of the ladder as lookouts or street dealers. Then they began hiring themselves out for retaliation operations against competitors or attacks on deal points, before taking it a step further by becoming more involved in drug trafficking, to the point where, according to several local police sources, they have managed to take over and run at least one outlet, in Parc Kalliste in Marseille’s 15th arrondissement.
This tried-and-tested method had already been successfully implemented in Italy, the gateway to Europe for these criminal organizations. There, Nigerian gangs even managed to free themselves from the control of powerful criminal organizations, taking over cocaine and heroin trafficking in several Sicilian towns.
Nigeria, a hub for drug trafficking
In Paris, several investigations carried out over the past three years by both the judicial police districts and the drug squad have documented this rise in power. They have dismantled networks with an international presence, with ramifications sometimes extending from the Netherlands to Brazil, and whose points of sale or transaction were located in restaurants or hairdressing salons in the 18th arrondissement.
“For the time being, the Paris metro area mainly serves them as a platform for receiving merchandise and as a transit point for independent networks,” said a source at the Parisian judicial police.
“Otherwise, the Nigerians confine themselves to this role and don’t get involved in retail sales, even though they may join forces with Senegalese individuals for street crack dealing, for example.”
In a related development, Police units around the world have joined forces in a series of covert operations targeting one of West Africa’s most feared criminal networks – Black Axe.
Operation Jackal III saw officers in body armour carry out raids in 21 countries between April and July 2024.
According to bbc.com, the mission, co-ordinated by global policing agency Interpol, led to the arrest of 300 people with links to Black Axe and other affiliated groups.
Interpol called the operation a “major blow” to the Nigerian crime network, but warned that its international reach and technological sophistication mean it remains a global threat.
In one notorious example, Canadian authorities said they had busted a money-laundering scheme linked to Black Axe worth more than $5bn (£3.8bn) in 2017.
“They are very organised and very structured,” Tomonobu Kaya, a senior official at Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, told the BBC.
According to a 2022 report by Interpol, “Black Axe and similar groups are responsible for the majority of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud as well as many other serious crimes”.
Mr Kaya said innovations in money-transfer software and cryptocurrency have played into the hands of group, which are renowned for multi-million dollar online scams.
“These criminal syndicates are early adopters of new technologies… A lot of fintech developments make it really easy to illegally move money around the world,” he said.
Operation Jackal III was years in the making and led to the seizure of $3m of illegal assets and more than 700 bank accounts being frozen.
Many Black Axe members are university educated and are recruited during their schooling.
The organisation is a secretive criminal network with trafficking, prostitution and killing operations around the world.
Cyber-crime, targeting individuals and businesses, is the organisation’s largest source of revenue.
Multiple so-called “Jackal” police operations have taken place since 2022.
Dozens of Black Axe and other gang members have been arrested and their electronic devices seized during these transnational raids. This work has enabled Interpol to create a vast intelligence database, which is now shared with officers throughout its 196 member countries.
“We need to have data and to collate our findings from these countries to help build a picture of their modus operandi,” said Mr Kaya.
Despite multiple international arrests, some experts feel not enough is being done to address the root of these crime syndicates in West Africa.
“The emphasis must actually be on prevention not on outright operations against these criminal groups,” said Dr Oluwole Ojewale, West Africa Regional Co-ordinator from the Institute for Security Studies.
Nigeria, which has witnessed widespread anti-corruption protests in recent weeks, is one of Africa’s largest economies, but has as many as 87 million people living below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. It is also the main recruitment ground for Black Axe.
Interpol said it was carrying out training exercises with key Nigerian stakeholders and police officials. But corruption, and allegations of collusion between Black Axe and local authorities, remain major obstacles.
“It is the politicians who are actually arming these boys,” said Dr Ojewale. “The general failure of governance in the country has made pressures for people to be initiated [into Black Axe].”
Despite its current global reach, Interpol’s Jackal Operations have their origins in Ireland.
Following a series of police raids by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) in 2020, a handful of Black Axe members were arrested, paving the way for the exposure of a far wider network.
“They were very under the radar, very low-key,” said Michael Cryan, detective superintendent at the GNECB, which led the operation.
“The amount of money being laundered through Ireland was astronomical,” he added.
The police subsequently identified 1,000 people with links to Black Axe in Ireland and have made hundreds of arrests for fraud and cyber-crime.
“Bank robberies are now done with laptops – they’re far more sophisticated,” said Det Supt Cryan.
He estimates €200m ($220m; £170m) have been stolen online in Ireland in the past five years, and that only accounts for the 20% of cyber-crimes that are believed to be reported.
“This is not typical or ordinary crime… People who make decisions need to know how serious this is,” he said.
Irish police operations in November 2023 revealed that cryptocurrency – which can be sent rapidly between digital wallets around the world – is becoming an integral element in Black Axe’s money-laundering operations.
More than €1m in crypto-assets were seized during one operation.
Interpol has deployed its own new technology in an attempt to tackle these innovations, launching the Global Rapid Intervention of Payments system (I-GRIP).
The mechanism, which enables the authorities in member countries to freeze bank accounts around the world with unprecedented speed, was used to halt a $40m scam targeting a Singaporean business last month.
Interpol’s Mr Kaya said technology like this would make it harder for criminals to move money across borders with impunity.
A major effort is under way to gather and share intelligence on Black Axe and other West African syndicates by police around the world.
“If we can gather this data we can take action,” he said.
