Italian police, yesterday, said they had arrested 30 suspected members of the Nigerian Black Axe mafia gang that has been operating in many regions of the country.
All those seized were Nigerian nationals, with arrests carried out across Italy. The suspects face almost 100 charges, including mafia association, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, prostitution and internet fraud, police said.
Among those detained was the Black Axe’s alleged leader in Italy, a 35-year-old man who lived in L’Aquila, in the central Abruzzo region. His name was not given.
“There is evidence that the members had a direct connection with the Nigerian gang, drawing on the same vocabulary, symbols and affiliation rituals,” police said.
The operation started as a probe in L’Aquila and involved the search of more than 25 domestic residences. The Black Axe group emerged from Nigeria in the 1990s, carrying out ritual murders, mutilation and rape before developing a powerful international network.
Police said most of the suspected crimes were committed on the Internet, including using bitcoins on the dark web to purchase the numbers of cloned credit cards, which were used for online shopping sprees.
Interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, said Italy was showing its determination to tackle organised crime.
“This proves the ability of the judiciary and police forces to fight against old and new mafia groups which are trying to extend their criminal reach and expand their business,”
Lamorgese said in a statement.
In 2016, three members of the Black Axe group were sentenced to, at least, a decade in prison each for crimes including murder. Prosecutors at the time said the trio had brought to Palermo, Italy, the practices of the organization, including mafia techniques in carrying out attempted murder, armed robbery, bodily harm, extortion, and drug dealing.
Prosecutors also said the trio answered to Italy’s most storied mafia organisation, the Cosa Nostra, as if they were its subjects. The group is believed to have attacked two people with bottles and axes late one night in January 2014, in Palermo’s Ballaro street market, where police later found the victims with gashed foreheads.
