[BBC] A two-year BBC investigation into Black Axe - a Nigerian student fraternity which evolved into a dreaded mafia-group - has unearthed new evidence of infiltration of politics, and a scamming and killing operation spanning the globe.
For two years BBC Africa Eye has been investigating Black Axe, building a network of whistle-blowers, and uncovering several thousand secret documents - leaked from the gang's private communications. The findings suggest that over the past decade, Black Axe has become one of the most far-reaching and dangerous organised crime groups in the world.
In Africa, Europe, Asia and North America, Axemen are in our midst. You may even have an email from them in your inbox.
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Our search for answers led us to a man who claimed he had hacked tens of thousands of secret Black Axe documents - a huge cache of private communications, from hundreds of suspected members. The messages, which span 2009 to 2019, include communications about murder and drug smuggling. Emails detail elaborate and lucrative internet fraud. Messages plan global expansion. It was a mosaic of Black Axe criminal activity spanning four continents.
Within Nigeria, Black Axe is fighting a war of supremacy with rival "cults" - similar criminal gangs with names like the Eiye, the Buccaneers, the Pirates and the Maphites. Messages the BBC have translated from West African Pidgin show Axemen keeping track of how many rivals they have murdered, tallying up the figures like a football score in each region.
"Score is presently 15-2, the war is Benin," reads one post. "Hit in Anambra state. Score is Aye [Axemen] 4 and Buccaneers 2," reads another.
But internet fraud, not murder, is the primary source of revenue for the gang. The documents given to the BBC include receipts, bank transfers and thousands of emails showing Black Axe members collaborating on online scams around the world. Members share "formats" - blueprints on how to conduct scams - with each other. Options include romance scams, inheritance scams, real estate scams and business email scams, in which the perpetrators create email accounts that appear to be those of the victim's lawyers, or accountants, in order to intercept payments.
These scams are not small-scale, conducted by a lone wolf on a laptop. They are collaborative, organised and extremely lucrative operations, sometimes involving dozens of individuals working together across continents.
Black Axe's international cybercrime network is likely to be generating billions of dollars in revenue for their members. In 2017 Canadian authorities say they busted a money laundering scheme linked to the gang worth more than $5bn. Nobody knows how many similar Black Axe schemes are out there. The leaked documents show members communicating between Nigeria, the UK, Malaysia, the Gulf States, and a dozen other countries.
"It's spread all over the world," the source of the data hack told us. He says he's an anti-fraud investigator in his private life and began pursuing Black Axe after encountering a number of their scam victims.
"I would estimate there are upwards of 30,000 members," he says.
Black Axe's global expansion has been carefully constructed. The correspondence shows Axemen dividing geographic areas into "zones," and designating local "heads". Zonal heads collect "dues" - something akin to membership fees - from those in their jurisdictions, before sending the money back to leaders in their heartland in Nigeria's Benin City.
"It has spread throughout Europe and America, South America and Asia," says Tobias. "It is not a little club, this is a fantastically large criminal organisation."
Tobias's assessment is backed up by international law enforcement findings. According to the 2021 Organised Crime Index, based on analysis from 120 experts in Africa, Nigeria has the highest levels of organised crime on the continent - and these networks are expanding abroad.
In Italy, decades-old mafia laws are being revived to tackle the expansion of Black Axe, who are said to be overwhelming local crime networks. In April 2021, 30 suspected members were arrested in the country, charged with human trafficking, prostitution and internet fraud.
The US has taken a more aggressive approach. FBI operations against Black Axe were launched in November 2019 and September 2021, eventually charging more than 35 individuals with multi-million dollar internet fraud. Between September and December this year, the US Secret Service and Interpol launched an international operation to arrest a further nine suspected Black Axe members in South Africa.
"Cybercrime is a multi-trillion dollar industry, it's out of control," says Scott Augenbaum, a former FBI special agent and cyber-security expert.
As global as Black Axe's criminal empire may be, its roots lie firmly in Nigeria. The group was founded 40 years ago in Benin City, Edo State.
Most Axemen are from this region, and this affiliation may have played a role in the group's international expansion. According to the UN commissioner for refugees, 70% of Nigerians who migrate abroad are from Edo State. Black Axe are reported to play a pivotal role trafficking those who travel illegally, moving them between their bases in Benin City, North Africa and Southern Italy.
In their homeland, male university undergraduates - aged between 16 and 23 - are Black Axe's primary recruits. The gang's secretive initiation process, known as "bamming," is notoriously brutal.
Dr Stone says many Axemen join solely for networking purposes. Nigeria has the second highest rate of unemployment in the world, and within this challenging environment, he says joining Black Axe can provide protection and business connections. He claims not all members are criminals.
"We have members in the Nigerian army, navy, air force. We have those in academia. We have priests, pastors," he said.
This mutual support was key to Black Axe's original purpose. The group grew out of a student fraternity called the Neo Black Movement of Africa (NBM). It formed at the University of Benin in the 1970s. The NBM's symbol was a black axe breaking chains, and its founders said their aim was to fight oppression. The NBM was inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, but in structure, secrecy and brotherly commitment, it mirrored societies like the Freemasons, which had a presence in Nigeria during the colonial era.
The NBM still exists today, and is a legally registered company with the Nigerian corporate affairs commission. It claims to have three million members around the world, and regularly publicises charitable activity - donations to orphanages, schools and the police, both in Nigeria and abroad. It holds huge annual conferences, some of which have been attended by prominent politicians and celebrities.
Leaders of the NBM claim Black Axe is a rogue, breakaway group. Publicly they strongly disassociate themselves from the name and are adamant that the NBM opposes all criminal activity.
Dr Stone says many Axemen join solely for networking purposes. Nigeria has the second highest rate of unemployment in the world, and within this challenging environment, he says joining Black Axe can provide protection and business connections. He claims not all members are criminals.
"We have members in the Nigerian army, navy, air force. We have those in academia. We have priests, pastors," he said.
This mutual support was key to Black Axe's original purpose. The group grew out of a student fraternity called the Neo Black Movement of Africa (NBM). It formed at the University of Benin in the 1970s. The NBM's symbol was a black axe breaking chains, and its founders said their aim was to fight oppression. The NBM was inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, but in structure, secrecy and brotherly commitment, it mirrored societies like the Freemasons, which had a presence in Nigeria during the colonial era.
The NBM still exists today, and is a legally registered company with the Nigerian corporate affairs commission. It claims to have three million members around the world, and regularly publicises charitable activity - donations to orphanages, schools and the police, both in Nigeria and abroad. It holds huge annual conferences, some of which have been attended by prominent politicians and celebrities.
Leaders of the NBM claim Black Axe is a rogue, breakaway group. Publicly they strongly disassociate themselves from the name and are adamant that the NBM opposes all criminal activity.
According to Tobias, the NBM has been instrumental in Black Axe's covert expansion around the world. "The Neo Black Movement as an organisation is just a charade, it's a smokescreen, it's a public face of the organisation," he says. He claims "the end game" of the NBM is "to subvert the opinion of the public"- to hide "what they really are, which is a mafia".
Organisations operating under the name of the NBM are registered around the world, including in the UK and Canada. There are at least 50 Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts using a variation of this name, in addition to the corporation's official social media channels. Some accounts have more than 100,000 followers. Others include implicit references to Black Axe - axe emojis, photos of people carrying axes or guns, and occasionally the signature slogan "Aye Axemen!"
The NBM has successfully established itself as a global brand, in multiple countries. In Nigeria, Dr Stone claims, the network's influence extends to the political sphere.
"There are a lot of members in the House of Assembly, even the executive," he said. "That is what Black Axe is. That is what NBM preaches: veer into any position that you know is humanly possible."
Augustus Bemigho, the former head of the NBM - described in UK court files as the former head of Black Axe - ran for office in the Nigerian House of Representatives in 2019, campaigning for the ruling All Progressive Congress Party (APC).
The activist Curtis Ogbebor claims Edo State politics is saturated with Black Axe members. "Nigeria has this mafia politics," he said. "Our politicians, government at all levels, encourage our youth into cultism."
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