Six Nigerians accused of romance scams to be extradited to the US
South African police are extraditing six Nigerian nationals to the United States on Friday to face charges over an alleged romance scam network. The men, arrested in 2021, are accused of defrauding more than 100 women in the US — including pensioners and businesspeople — of over 100 million rand (around $6m/£5m) by cultivating fake online relationships. They are believed to belong to Black Axe, a Nigerian mafia-style syndicate linked to human trafficking, internet fraud and violent crime, and will be handed to FBI and US Secret Service officials to face wire fraud and money-laundering charges.
South Africa's Hawks police unit said the group would be transported from a Cape Town correctional facility to the airport for the handover. Black Axe has been targeted by US and international law enforcement for years, with FBI operations in 2019 and 2021 charging more than 35 people, and Interpol coordinating further crackdowns since. Most recently, an Interpol operation between November 2025 and June 2026 raided seven South African sites tied to romance and investment scams, arresting 39 people and blocking over 250 bank accounts.
- Six Nigerians extradited from South Africa to US over romance scams
- Alleged Black Axe members accused of defrauding 100+ women of $6m
- Part of wider global crackdown on West African cyber-crime networks
New here? Start with this
South African police are set to hand over six Nigerian men to US authorities, ending a case that dates back to their arrest in 2021 on suspicion of running a romance scam operation. The men are accused of tricking more than 100 women across the United States into fake relationships and swindling them out of millions of dollars. They are alleged to be linked to Black Axe, a Nigerian criminal organisation with a long history of involvement in fraud, trafficking and violent crime around the world.
Romance scams typically involve building trust with victims online over weeks or months before persuading them to send money, and they have become a major target for law enforcement because of the scale of losses and the vulnerability of those affected, who often include older people. US agencies such as the FBI and Secret Service, working with South African police and Interpol, have spent years pursuing suspected Black Axe members through a series of arrests and prosecutions.
This extradition fits into a broader, ongoing crackdown by international police forces on syndicates accused of running online romance and investment fraud schemes, with further raids and arrests reported in South Africa as recently as this year.