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| Map of Nigeria Español: Mapa de Nigeria (credit: Wikipedia) |
Criminal organizations from Nigeria typically do not follow the mafia-type model followed by other groups. They appear to be less formal and more organized along familial and ethnic lines, thus making them less susceptible by infiltration from law enforcement. Police investigations are further hampered by the fact there are at least 250 distinct ethnic languages in Nigeria. Other criminal gangs from Nigeria appear to be smaller-scale freelance operations. Most Nigerian organized crime syndicates are of Igbo or Yoruba origin.
Nigerian criminal groups are heavily involved in drug trafficking, shipping heroin from Asian countries to Europe and America; and cocaine from South America to Europe and South Africa. The large numbers of ethnic Nigerians in India, Pakistan, and Thailand give their gangs ready access to around 90% of the world's heroin. In the United States, Nigerian drug traffickers are important distributors of heroin, from importing it into the country to distribution level and selling it to lower-lever street gangs.
Confraternities
Some Nigerian crime syndicates origins can be traced backed to confraternities. In Nigeria, a confraternity is a group that is nominally university-based, though 'street and creek' confraternities began in the 1990s. By the 1990s, many confraternities largely operated as criminal gangs, called "campus cults".
The Family Confraternity (the Campus Mafia or the Mafia), which modelled itself after the Italian Mafia emerged. Shortly after their arrival, several students were expelled from Abia State University for cheating and "cultism", a reference to the voodoo-practising confraternities, which marked the beginning of a shift of confraternity activities from the university to off campus.
The Brotherhood of the Blood (also known as Two-Two (Black Beret)), another notorious confraternity, was founded at Enugu State University of Science and Technology. Another cult, the Victor Charlie Boys, was established by Augustine Ahiazu when he was vice-chancellor of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology. The cults established in the early 1990s are legion; they include Second Son of Satan (SSS), Night Cadet, Sonmen, Mgba Mgba Brothers, Temple of Eden, Trojan Horse, Jurists, White Bishops, Gentlemen Clubs, Fame, Executioners, Dreaded Friend of Friends, Eagle Club, Black Scorpion, Red Sea Horse and Fraternity of Friends.
The majority of confraternities, as of 2005, were engaged in a variety of money-making criminal activities, ranging from armed robbery drug trafficking and kidnapping. Cult members may also get money from political figures, who wish to intimidate their opponents. The exact death toll of confraternity activities is unclear. In the Niger River delta, confraternities are deeply enmeshed in the conflict in the oil-rich delta. Most of the campus cults have been accused of kidnapping foreign oil workers for ransom, while many of the militant groups, such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), employ confraternity members as combatants.
South Africa Dominance
The most profitable activity of the Nigerian groups is drug trafficking: delivering heroin from South-east and South-west Asian into Europe and the U.S. and cocaine from South America into Europe and South Africa. Large populations of ethnic Nigerians in India, Pakistan, and Thailand have given these enterprises direct access to 90 percent of the world’s heroin production. The associated money laundering has helped establish Nigerian criminal enterprises on every populated continent of the world.
Nigerian crime syndicates have come to dominate the cocaine market in South Africa. More than 60 000 Nigerian citizens have settled in South Africa during the past decade. According to senior detectives, a well-connected network of numerous small and autonomous Nigerian syndicates, consisting of five or six individuals, has been established to ensure domination in the cocaine market. Most of these syndicates operate from Johannesburg, but some have recently moved into more distant areas such as Sea Point in Cape Town. The individuals belonging to each of the many small syndicates each have their specific tasks and expertise.
When cocaine supplies need to be acquired from South America, each member of a syndicate would have to make a financial contribution into a common fund for the syndicate. The network of Nigerian cocaine syndicates is well-established enough to know when other Nigerian syndicates have gone through the same exercise and when the time is therefore ripe to obtain another shipment of cocaine from abroad. Representatives from different small syndicates, normally the buyers from each syndicate, will then meet, pool their resources, and arrange for one individual to take over the responsibility of obtaining a shipment of cocaine from South America.
The Nigerian syndicates have direct contacts in Brazil and in other South American countries. Most transactions are paid for in cash, although it has happened that such syndicates have resorted to the export of South African dagga in order to pay for cocaine. Upon arrival in South Africa, the cocaine would be divided proportionally amongst all the syndicates who have contributed financially to the particular venture.
No single, large mafia-like Nigerian syndicate is therefore operating in the country and no ‘Mr Big’ has been identified among the Nigerian crime syndicates. The enormous profits that can be made through cocaine smuggling make for a very competitive environment, but there is more than enough opportunity for every syndicate involved to make vast profits. Detectives who have intimate experience of Nigerian syndicates, after having worked with them, maintain that the going purchase price for one kilogram of pure cocaine was $12 500 in South America (cocaine of maximum purity is 90 per cent pure).
According to the police, once the cocaine has arrived in South Africa and it has been sold by a syndicate after significantly diluting its concentration, the original one kilogram, now in its diluted form, is sold for $100, 000. While some overhead expenses will have to be deducted, it is clear that enormous profits are being made through this form of transnational organised crime. According to the police, members of the Nigerian syndicates who receive their share of the profits, tend to send most of their proceeds back to Nigeria rather than investing it in South Africa.
Mafia Connection
In their homeland, Nigerian criminals have managed to change their status from intermediates working on behalf of Mexican and Colombian cartels to controllers of the import-export business, even in countries such as Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast and Kenya. Drugs are then sent to Europe, mainly to Spain and Italy, two territories of business controlled by Italian Mafia And they mainly deal with the Casalesi clan.
The Casalesi clan is a clan within the Camorra, an Italian criminal organization, operating from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Salerno. Formed by Antonio Bardellino, it is a confederation of clans in the Caserta area. The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating back to the 18th century.
In recent years, various Camorra clans have been forming alliances with Nigerian drug gangs and the Albanian Mafia, even going so far as to intermarry. The first town that the Camorra gave over to be completely governed by a foreign clan was Castel Volturno, which was given to the Rapaces, clans from Lagos and Benin City in Nigeria. This allowed them to traffic cocaine and women indentured to sex slavery before sending them across the whole of Europe. The Casalesi clan is heavily involved in the cement and milk industries as well as the international drug trade, supplying drugs to the Mafia in Palermo and having alliances with Albanian mobsters and Nigerian crime syndicates. Their total assets are estimated to be worth around 30 billion euros
"Nigerian criminals are able to make agreements with everybody, from Colombians to the Chinese, but in Italy they have found two elements: a local mafia who controls the territory and Italian clients who are always looking for Nigerian women," says Giovanni Conzo, an anti-mafia prosecutor from Naples who has been investigating Nigerian criminal groups for years.
Conzo and his men discovered a huge human-trafficking and drugs-smuggling Nigerian ring in the area of Naples and Castel Volturno. A number of people were arrested in 2008 but others are still fugitives. "We have also discovered a new trend," he says. "Today, they traffic drugs using European mules from the former Eastern block. In the past, they were controlled by our criminals; now, they are in control."
A recent report from an Italian anti-mafia agency painted a worrying picture about the gangs' growing reach: "Nigerian organised crime is growing in many Italian regions, with Umbria, Campania and Emilia Romagna on top."
According to the report, Nigerian criminals are the only international gangs who are able to make agreements with everybody, from the Italian mafia to Latin America's cartels. It's a characteristic that has won them the business of drug smuggling between Africa and Europe. But they're not getting away with it completely. In 2010, 36 members of the Nigerian mafia (affiliated with the local groups of the Black Axe and the Eiye) were sentenced to more than 400 years in prison for human trafficking, drugs smuggling, slavery and murder, as hundreds of witnesses kept telling the judge the same story.
The two groups – what remains of the former university's confraternities, now considered illegal in Nigeria – were using death threats against other Nigerians to enslave them in their illegal businesses . "One of them approached me as I was going back to my place," a Nigerian victim told to the court. "They wanted me to become a member of the Eiye, but I said no. After few days, I was sitting at a local café and they came to talk to me. I went out and I was surrounded. They took their axes out and started beating me.... They even cut my penis and I will never be able to have children."
Mode Of Operations
Nigerian traffickers have developed global smuggling routes. These routes usually originate in Thailand or Pakistan, where heroin may be purchased at wholesale prices. The heroin is then easily transported through Europe and Africa with routes terminating in America's major cities.
In recent years, Nigerian traffickers have expanded their operations by smuggling South American cocaine into Europe where prices are higher and profit margins greater than those in the United States. As the proliferation of these Nigerian couriers has increased, law enforcement has responded with greater scrutiny. The prevalent use of fraudulent documents by couriers has made identifying and apprehending these individuals extremely problematic. Nigerians employ a vast army of couriers with a variety of backgrounds. Nigerian traffickers recruit Westerners, women with children, families, college students, and individuals travelling abroad who will not attract the attention of law enforcement authorities.
The average pay for couriers is $3,000 to $5,000 per trip, depending on the amount of the drugs being smuggled and the courier's past success. Nigerian traffickers will rarely have a courier transport heroin from the source country to the destination. Instead, one courier will transport the heroin partway, for example, to Europe, while another courier will be utilized to transport the shipment to another destination. For some operations even a third courier may be used to transport the drugs into the United States. This allows the organization and its members a greater degree of insulation as couriers rarely know the other couriers employed on the routes or their final destination.
In addition, it allows narcotics to be transported into the country from locations which do not arouse suspicions, since no record of source country travel is evident. Flights sometimes can contain Nigerian organizational members who may supervise or report on the couriers and their activities. Often couriers are not aware of individuals monitoring their travel.
In a few instances, Nigerian heroin traffickers have recruited disabled individuals to smuggle heroin from West Africa to the United States. Intelligence obtained from one DEA investigation indicated the Nigerian trafficking organization recruited disabled people to smuggle heroin in to the United States. This organization solicited invitations from supporting events such as the Special Olympic Games, and then secured a visa for the courier to travel. None of the couriers participated in the sporting events, but instead would deliver the heroin to the United States and then return to Nigeria.
Air travel still remains vital to Nigerian smuggling ventures. Nigerians have tailored their smuggling techniques to limit detection and to take advantage of the profitability of smuggling heroin, which is far more valuable than similar amounts of cocaine.
In the 1990's, Nigerians lost large quantities of heroin and dozens of couriers annually to law enforcement operations. In an effort to insulate their trafficking operations, Nigerian traffickers in 1996 began mailing heroin in one or two kilogram quantities from South-east Asia and Pakistan to the United States. The use of express mail service has become a popular heroin trafficking method.
Other highlights of the global snapshot on Nigerian activities include Brazil, where apparently Nigerian groups employ about 1,500 people, export 10 tons of cocaine a year, and engage in barter of cocaine and heroin. Other countries where they are active include the Philippines, Cambodia, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic, Singapore, and of course the United States and Britain. So that gives you a sense of the extensiveness.
Nigerian criminal organizations are very flexible and very innovative. They adapt easily to the host society. In Britain, they have become adept at obtaining welfare benefits using a myriad of false identities and links with fellow countrymen who work inside national and local agencies where there is access to financial data and personnel records. They really exploit the people in the system.
Preparation
Nigerian Crime Syndicates do considerable research in identifying potential targets for 419 fraud. A professor at the University of Pittsburgh was the recipient of a Nigerian fraud letter, which actually included his middle name—a name he never uses and none of his colleagues actually knew. The Nigerians had discovered his middle name and included it in the letter. It shows they had done a lot of work.
Organisation
Another characteristic of Nigerian Crime Syndicates is that they are well organized, there are three kinds of Nigerian organizational structure. The first is the old-fashioned pyramid or hierarchy. There are major organizers, many of whom are in Lagos, and are linked with significant numbers of criminal operations elsewhere in the world. These are crime barons, often members of the elite and members of government, who benefit from activities that they coordinate or support. They are also among the beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime that come back to Nigeria. They protect those proceeds from seizure under Nigeria's very poorly implemented money laundering laws.
The second type of structure is the flexible network. Many Nigerian criminal organizations are relatively small, and they are based around bonds created by family membership, tribal affinity, or personal friendship. These groups operate within a larger network that resembles trade associations rather than traditional Mafia hierarchies. The fluid network provides support, structure and potential connections.
The third type of group is the self-contained cell in which there are a few people with specific responsibilities and a clear cut division of labour These cells are independent entities and take the initiative in generating and exploiting criminal opportunities.
Future Trends
Let me now turn to current trends and future directions in Nigerian organized crime. One we have seen that's very important is the transition from employees to employers and from couriers to managers. Nigerian criminal groups and Nigerian criminals have graduated from working for others to becoming organized smugglers in their own right. I think this has partly been in response to the profiles law enforcement has developed. They become very adept at recruiting non-profile couriers, including females in the target country, and even in one case 20 servicemen who were recruited in 1996 to courier drugs from Istanbul to Rome. We should increasingly expect this managerial role to continue in the future.
Second, I think there is increasing imitation of Nigerian criminals by other West Africans and increasingly citizens elsewhere in Africa. In Britain, for example, law enforcement doesn't talk about Nigerian crime, it's West African crime—predominantly, but not exclusively, Nigerians and Ghanians.
The third trend is the upward trajectory of the Nigerian crime problem. There are long-term structural factors that will lead to an intensification of this problem on a global scale. The most important is population growth. According to some estimates, by 2010, the Nigerian population will be so large that domestic oil production will not be sufficient to meet the country's needs and Nigeria will become a net importer of oil, in spite of its large-scale production. Amidst growing impoverishment in the country, crime will be an increasingly attractive career path for young Nigerians.
Fourth, another projection. Nigeria will continue to be a safe haven from which criminals can operate. Much of course will depend on what happens to the political system. But I have my doubts that we are going to see fundamental change because I think a lot of the crime and corruption is so deep rooted.
The fifth trend is toward growing sophistication. Many Nigerian criminals are well educated with excellent language skills. I think we will see growing use of computers and other technologies.
Sixth, we will see more efforts to infiltrate government agencies by Nigerian criminals. This is happening in Britain. In the Benefits Agency, Nigerians and Ghanians made up 5 percent of the staff, but accounted for almost 90 percent of the internal fraud. I think that is a significant figure.
Another trend is toward diversity in trafficking. Nigerians are not wedded to any particular drug. Cocaine or heroin, they don't care. They don't produce. So they can increasingly follow the fashion. Consequently, we should expect that they will increasingly become involved in trafficking synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine.
Finally, although there might be some move toward greater concentration of power and authority in the Nigerian criminal world, Nigerian drug traffickers are set to become increasely important players in the global drug trade through rationalization and consolidation, if only to counter the international law enforcement efforts which are increasingly targeting Nigerian criminal groups.
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