Arrests point to rival cybercrime ‘cults’ making their home in SA
In the latest international crackdown on online fraudsters from West Africa whose tentacles reach across the globe, the police caught two suspects in Pretoria who are thought to have netted $1.8m.
Investigations stretching across at least 14 countries have revealed how suspected members of rival cults that carry out online scams are operating in South Africa. These cults have their roots in another part of the continent.
DM168 has previously reported how some authorities view Black Axe, also known as the Neo Black Movement of Africa, as a cult – and how it appears to have a stronghold in South Africa.
Recent investigations suggest rivals of Black Axe, a grouping known as the Supreme Eiye Confraternity, or Air Lords, is also operating in the country.
This would mean that groups with bases in West Africa, notably Nigeria, which are regarded as growing international criminal problems, have set up shop in South Africa.
If authorities are to be believed, they are living lavish lifestyles that are funded with money made from online fraud, including romance scams.
A Western Cape High Court judgment from September, relating to suspected Black Axe members in Cape Town trying to get released from custody, said the grouping was classified as a cult in Nigeria.
The group had “a long history of using violence … which included killing, sexual attacks and corporal punishment as methods of enforcement within its ranks and in its recruitment”. The judgment said Black Axe was possibly “the most notorious secret society to have emerged from Nigeria”.
Opposing Black Axe, it said, was a dangerous undertaking.
Global security threat
A Hawks spokesperson told this week it was understood that Interpol was coordinating investigations in South Africa.
Last week, Interpol warned that Black Axe “is rapidly becoming a major security threat worldwide”. It also said Black Axe and similar groups were responsible for most of the world’s financial cyber fraud.
“Illicit financial funds are the lifeblood of transnational organised crime, and we have witnessed how groups like Black Axe will channel money gained from online financial scams into other crime areas such as drugs and human trafficking,” said Stephen Kavanagh, executive director of Interpol’s police services. “These groups demand a global response.”
Late last year in South Africa, the Hawks announced that eight suspected Black Axe online scammers had been arrested in Cape Town during a joint operation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
These investigations also linked to Italy and Ireland, where investigations in 2020 gave rise to those in South Africa.
Operation Jackal
Interpol’s statement said that in the latest phase of a continuing crackdown, codenamed Operation Jackal, it had “mobilised 14 countries across four continents in a targeted strike against Black Axe and related West African organised crime groups”. During the last week of September, police officers in various countries proceeded with Operation Jackal clampdowns.
A total of 75 arrests were carried out, 49 properties searched and €1.2-million in bank accounts intercepted. About 12,000 SIM cards were confiscated and about 70 more suspects identified.
“Two Interpol operational support teams were also deployed to South Africa and Ireland, respectively, to help coordinate international law enforcement teams on the ground,” Interpol’s statement said.
“In South Africa alone … two suspects arrested were wanted for online scams that extracted $1.8-million from victims.”
According to Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale, a police team from South Africa, along with Interpol officers, arrested the two suspects at separate locations in Pretoria in the last week of September. Laptops, phones and thousands of rands in cash were seized during this operation. An unlicensed firearm was also seized.
Luxury mansion and ‘Air Lords in SA’
Mogale said that the two suspects “are alleged to be part of a cult known as the Air Lords who are said to be rivals of the Black Axe movement”.
She added that it was suspected they were involved with online scams. The arrests were among many happening in various countries as part of operations to trace “suspects involved in online scams such as romance, investments, bitcoin, employment and all related advance fee fraud”, Mogale said.
A video clip of Ian Pemberton, an acting coordinator at Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, posted on Twitter on 30 September, showed him outside a home in Pretoria.
In another tweet on Interpol’s official account, the property was described as a “luxury mansion”. Pemberton said he was in front of “one of the search sites” where a suspect inside had “literally just been arrested”.
He added that evidence obtained at the property would assist investigations taking place globally.
Italy arrests and Cape Town cash plea
As part of last month’s Operation Jackal, three Black Axe suspects were also arrested in Campobasso, Italy. Western Cape High Court papers – the judgment relating to Black Axe suspects in Cape Town trying to get bail – showed they had alleged ties to Italy.
The judgment said: “Black Axe was recognised as a mafia group with a presence in Palermo, Italy.”
About 18 suspected members were previously arrested in Italy on charges including money laundering and drug trafficking. Their arrests were flagged in Cape Town.
The judgment said that in a speech delivered during a Black Axe seminar held in Cape Town on 9 November 2018, the head of the group “called for members to provide money to the organisation to assist the Italian Zone members with their legal bills to fight the charges against them”.
Money mules in Ireland
Authorities in Ireland announced on 14 October that its leg of Operation Jackal, code-named Operation Skein, resulted in 23 arrests in the last week of September. Operation Skein started in late 2020. A statement from Irish police said it was believed that, to date, about €64-million had been laundered through Ireland.
“The bank accounts used to launder this €64-odd-million money belongs to Irish residents who are recruited as money mules by what are known as mule herders,” the statement said. “Money mules are recruited via social media or through friends or at parties. On some occasions, young people with drug debts pay off their drug debts by allowing their accounts to be used.”
In November last year, Interpol said that its members had helped police in Ireland download data and records from phones and computers seized during Operation Skein crackdowns.
US spooks and international victims
Some of that data collected in Ireland led to investigations in South Africa and the US.
Meanwhile, Daily Maverick previously reported that of the eight suspected Black Axe members arrested in Cape Town about a year ago, the US wanted six of them extradited. It was also reported that the US Secret Service, tasked with protecting that country’s political leaders and its financial infrastructure, was also trying to track down Egbe Tony Iyamu, whose aliases included Lord Aminu Kano and Richard Amall.
He was a suspected member of Black Axe who allegedly worked in Cape Town as an enforcer for the crime syndicate.
The Western Cape High Court court judgment said among the alleged targets of those suspects was a US university that had lost money in a business email compromise scheme. It also said the US had identified more “victims in Germany, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, the United Kingdom and Canada, all associated with the Black Axe in Cape Town”.