The US Secret Service, tasked with protecting that country’s political leaders and its financial infrastructure, is trying to track down a suspected member of Black Axe who allegedly worked in Cape Town as an enforcer for the Nigerian crime syndicate.
To try to gather more information on Black Axe, the FBI has an email address dedicated to victims of the scam artists.
Cape Town has been identified as a Black Axe base and eight suspected members were arrested in the city in October last year. The US wants six of them extradited.
Daily Maverick previously reported that investigations into Black Axe – also known as the Neo Black Movement of Africa and which some countries consider a cult – emerged from an earlier probe that focused on Ireland.
The focus subsequently shifted to South Africa and Cape Town, in particular.
Released from custody
Last week, one of the suspects who was arrested in 2021, Toritseju Gabriel Otubu – whose extradition the US has not formally requested – was granted R210,000 bail in the Western Cape High Court.
Initially, Otubu and his seven co-accused were denied bail in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court. He successfully appealed this ruling in the high court.
The ruling in Otubu’s appeal said he previously had a successful agricultural business in his home country, Nigeria, but he had left there in 2012.
Acting Judge Geoffrey Carter said the Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions had “conceded” there was no evidence that Otubu…
