South Africa extradites six Nigerians to US over fraud

South Africa will extradite six Nigerian nationals suspected of being members of the Black Axe organised crime network involved in romance scams and cyberfraud to the United States, said by the police on friday.

The men are wanted by the US authorities on charges including wire fraud and money laundering.

They allegedly targeted more than 100 women in the US, defrauding them of more than 100 million rand ($6.2 million) through online romance scams, South Africa’s elite Hawks police unit said in a statement, adding the victims included pensioners and businesspeople.

Black Axe group grew out of ​a student fraternity in the late ​1970s called the Neo Black Movement ⁠of Africa, and it has since ​evolved into a structured, violent criminal organisation ​often dealing in financial cybercrime.

They will be handed over to officials from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Secret Service on Friday afternoon at Cape Town International Airport, the Hawks said.

The extradition comes after other suspected Black Axe members were arrested in Switzerland and Spain earlier this year.

SOURCE: Reuters