CAPE TOWN, South Africa (ABS News) — Six Nigerian nationals accused of running an online romance scam that defrauded more than 100 American women of over $6 million have landed in U.S. custody, ending a five-year wait since their arrest in South Africa.
South African police said the men were handed over Friday to officials from the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service at Cape Town International Airport, following coordination between South Africa’s Hawks unit — formally the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation — and Interpol South Africa. The men had been held in a Cape Town correctional facility since their arrest in 2021.
The suspects face wire fraud and money laundering charges in the United States. Authorities allege the men belonged to Black Axe, a Nigeria-linked criminal network that Interpol says is responsible for a significant share of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud, including romance scams, cryptocurrency schemes and investment fraud.
“Through the coordination of Interpol South Africa, the six will today be transported from a correctional facility in Cape Town to Cape Town International Airport, where they will be handed over to officials from the FBI and the United States Secret Service, who arrived in South Africa this morning,” South African police spokesperson Katlego Mogale said in a statement.
Police said the men targeted victims, including pensioners and businesspeople, by building fake online romantic relationships before soliciting money. The extradition follows a broader South African crackdown on the network that led to 39 arrests, the seizure of $2.67 million and the freezing of more than 250 bank accounts, according to Interpol.
The case is the latest in a string of U.S. prosecutions targeting Black Axe-linked fraud rings. A prominent leader of the network was extradited to the United States less than two years ago. In similar cases prosecuted by U.S. attorneys’ offices in recent years, romance-scam defendants have been sentenced to years in federal prison and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution, with prosecutors describing victims who lost retirement savings and, in some cases, suffered severe emotional harm.
Romance scams, sometimes referred to colloquially as “Nigerian prince” schemes after an older variant of the fraud, typically involve perpetrators building trust with victims over weeks or months on dating platforms or social media before fabricating emergencies or investment opportunities that require the victim to send money.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has repeatedly ranked romance scams among the costliest forms of online fraud reported by American victims, with older adults disproportionately targeted.
It was not immediately clear when the six men will be arraigned or in which U.S. federal court the case will proceed. Attorney information for the defendants was not immediately available.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
