Interpol Announced the Arrest of Members of the Black Ax Group

Daniel ZimmermannOctober 19, 2022

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Interpol officials announced the arrest of more than 70 members of the African cybercrime syndicate Black Axe. Two of them are believed to be responsible for $1.8 million financial fraud.

In general, the operation, codenamed “Jackal”, which was carried out from 26 to 30 September 2022 in South Africa, was attended by law enforcement agencies of Argentina, Australia, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, UAE, UK and USA.

By the way, we also wrote that Interpol Conducted Operation First Light 2022 and Arrested 2,000 Cyber Scammers.

Let me remind you that Black Ax has been active since the mid-2010s and is associated with a wide range of fraudulent attacks, including BEC scams, investment fraud, unemployment insurance fraud, and romance fraud (Black Ax members “worked” for dating sites like Match.com, ChistianMingle, JSwipe, and Plenty of Fish).

It should also be noted that Black Ax is part of a notorious crime syndicate associated with the Neo Black Movement (NBM), founded in the 1970s in Nigeria. Gradually, NBM developed into a secret society and cult, and then spread throughout Africa and other countries. If once NBM set itself the goal of combating racism, then subsequently NBM, like many other Nigerian brotherhoods, became involved in criminal activities.

According to law enforcement, these days NBM is associated with prostitution, human trafficking, drug trafficking, grand theft, money laundering and cybercrime (mainly BEC scam). At the same time, Black Ax is just another name that is used to cover up some NBM operations.

Black Ax and similar groups are responsible for most of the financial cyber fraud in the world, as well as many other serious crimes. Black Axe and other West African organized crime groups have created transnational networks and deceived millions of victims into lavish lifestyles and other criminal activities, from drug trafficking to sexual exploitation.Interpol officials wrote.

The financial success of the criminals can be judged by the assets seized by law enforcement in recent raids: tens of thousands of US dollars in cash, expensive cars, real estate, luxury goods and more than 12,000 mobile SIM cards were confiscated from the suspects. The police were also able to freeze over 1,200,000 euros in bank accounts of suspects and carried out 49 searches in total.

In addition, as part of Operation Jackal, Interpol launched for the first time the Anti-Money Laundering Rapid Response Protocol (ARRP), a global payment stop mechanism that is currently in the testing phase.

ARRP is a game changer in the fight against global financial crime, where speed and international cooperation are critical to intercept illicit funds before they disappear into the pockets of money mules abroad.Interpol said.

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