In the first of a two-part report, we explore how drug and cult gangs of Nigerian origin are now calling the shots in other parts of the world.
Until August 6, 2017, not many people had heard of the town called Ozubulu. A sleepy community tucked away in the slopes of Anambra State in the Southeastern part of the country, the area, like most rural ones across Nigeria, enjoyed relative tranquility even though social amenities needed to make life worthwhile are still largely missing. But on the morning of that fateful day, everything changed. At about 6:30 am, a gang of young men wielding guns and other dangerous weapons stormed St. Philips Catholic Church in the community while an early morning mass was going on. Without blinking an eye and minding the sanctity of the environment they were in, the men opened fire on worshippers – among them the very old and little children. By the time the dust finally settled, at least 13 people had been killed while another 18 were left battling for their lives after sustaining serious injuries.
While various theories as to the reason behind the gruesome attack emerged in the hours and days following the tragedy, the overwhelming consensus appears to tilt towards the fact that the massacre was a fallout of a feud between two drug cartels of Nigerian origin based in South Africa. According to reports, one of the warring factions was allegedly headed by one Aloysius Ikegwuonu, popularly known as Bishop, a native of Ozubulu, who has since denied the allegations. The young man, whose father was among the victims, has since visited victims and relatives of the dead and held meetings with leaders within the community.
However, sources told Saturday PUNCH that the fracas leading to the killings in Ozubulu might have begun as far back as five years ago when a particular drug gang based in South Africa failed to adequately account for the money realised from cocaine they allegedly sold on the streets from a consignment that came into the southern African nation through Pakistan.
According to the source, a mafia in the Asian country, enraged by the development, has been venting its fury on all those involved in the breach, killing several Nigerians based in South Africa.
It was also said that about the same time that St. Philips Catholic Church in Ozubulu was attacked, a similar armed siege was also laid at a restaurant in Johannesburg, South Africa, named Galito and allegedly owned by one of Bishop’s partners. Manager of the place and a staff were said to have been injured and hospitalised as a result of the attack.
Confirming the attack on the restaurant, the source said, “I was informed that a shooting incident occurred that Sunday morning at a business place owned by the Chairman of Ozubulu Town Union in South Africa and the manager was taken to the hospital.
“From my enquiry, the chairman of the union is neutral on the matter and he had made several efforts to ensure that the crisis was settled amicably.”
Speaking further, the source told Saturday PUNCH that the drug war was connected to the death of a young man from Imo State named Ginika, who he claims was one of Bishop’s most trusted allies but defected to a rival gang known as Obrocha.
“Some gangsters killed Ginika in an unrelated issue and the Imo State community made sure they were jailed. They have been in prison for a long time.
“Then there was another guy from Umuleri in Anambra State that was killed at a church in Johannesburg. He was rumoured to be friends with the ones in prison, who claimed that Bishop set them up and sent them to jail so that he could take over the place they used to sell drugs.
“They demanded three things from Ozubulu community in South Africa before there could be peace. One, they demanded the payment of $1m, two, that they should be freed from prison; and three, that they kill certain people as revenge for their loss.
“Obviously, the Ozubulu community couldn’t meet up with these demands hence the attack on their town.
“Five people from Ozubulu have already been killed who were allegedly in connection with this gang war. That excludes the worshippers,” the source said.
But while the police carry on with investigations to unravel those behind the bloodletting, and all those allegedly fingered continue to deny any involvement in the tragedy, the incident has highlighted how Nigerian drug cartels and cult groups are now giving other rival gangs in Europe, America, Asia and other parts of the world a run for their money right on their own turf.
In Switzerland for example, a conservative European nation, recent drug busts by law enforcement agents have shown clearly the growing threat of Nigerians cartels in the country’s cocaine business.
In February 2017, a court sitting in Lausanne, a prominent city, sentenced two Nigerian asylum seekers working for a Togolese criminal group to prison. They were punished for trafficking cocaine into the country and also laundering money in a thorough investigation that covered most parts of Europe.
This incident followed the dismantling of a major cocaine supply network headed by Nigerians and involving around 30 people by the Swiss police. The drugs were said to have been brought in from France and the Netherlands through females working for the gang.
“The numerous recent cases are the result of a determined campaign by the cantons to break down open street-level cocaine trafficking,” an illegal drugs expert at the Swiss Federal Police Office, Roger Flury, said. “Nigerians are clearly the most dominant group, followed by people from the Dominican Republic,” he added.
Also commenting on the situation, Spokesperson for the Vaud Cantonal Police in Switzerland, Jean-Christophe Sauterel, said, “The Nigerian networks are organised. They are very active and often at the head of the network.”
In December 2016, the sentencing to 27 years in jail of a Nigerian drug lord, Precious Nwoko, in Cambodia was said to have given deeper insight into how Nigerians controlled the drug business in the Asian country.
The young man also known as Precious Max, was said to have capitalised on his good physical features to attract Cambodian women to himself whom he thereafter uses as mules to traffic drugs. This is aside from an online dating scam he is also involved in to carry out operations smoothly for an international cartel before his eventual arrest.
That same year, a 34-year-old Nigerian, Samuel Okeke, was sentenced to 25 years in prison also in Cambodia together with his 26-year-old spouse from neighbouring Vietnam after being found guilty of peddling about 1.5 kg of heroin from the country to Australia two years earlier.
The Cambodian intelligence agency described Okeke as the arrowhead of a drug trafficking syndicate involving four others.
In 2015, the peace of the city of Toronto, one of Canada’s largest cities, was punctured when law enforcement officers busted a sophisticated car theft cartel operated by members of the Black Axe cult group popularly known as Aye. Following their arrest, it was discovered that the gang had stolen over 500 luxury cars valued at $30m. As a result of other high profile crimes committed in the Americas and other parts of the world, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency of the United States of America, that same year described Nigerian gangs as “the most notable of all African criminal enterprises and among the most aggressive and expansionist international criminal groups.”
Drug and cult gangs of Nigerian origin have also changed the ‘street game’ in India as well with their sophisticated and ruthless mode of operation. As a result of this seeming dominance, other cartels have had several clashes with them – many ending in bloodletting.
For instance, on the night of October 30, 2013, a Nigerian drug lord named Obado Simeon, was hacked to death by some unidentified persons in Parra, a small village five kilometres away from the Anjuna Beach in Goa, India. Local reports said the heavily-built 30-year-old only arrived in India six months before he was slaughtered to send a strong message to Nigerian gangs in the illicit dealings. Police investigation later confirmed the situation, revealing that Simeon was indeed killed by rival local groups in a supremacy battle.
“Nigerian drug dealers in Goa are known to be ruthless, enterprising, operate in close-knit groups and not afraid to risk selling drugs to anyone with enough cash,” an officer in the Indian police said. “Over the past few years, Nigerian drug dealers have captured a large chunk of Goa’s lucrative trade in the high-value drugs: methaqualone, cocaine and heroin,” he added, revealing that they were often afraid of going after them because of their aggressiveness.
In this Asian country, Nigerians, according to intelligence reports, preside over around 60 per cent of the total narcotics business – ahead of even Russian and Israeli gangs.
“Nigerians used to be small fry on Mumbai’s streets but in the past two years, they have taken over the city’s drug trade,” head of Drug Abuse Information Rehabilitation and Research Centre, South Mumbai, Dr. Yusuf Merchant, said.
In Italy, the story is not too different especially with Nigerian drug and cult groups now directing proceedings in places such as Naples and Rome, the capital. Both areas, once quiet holiday destinations, have since been taking over by Nigerian gangs.
But taking over the streets of these cities have not come cheap – over the years, more than a few individuals have paid the ultimate price as a result of the situation. In 2008, eight Nigerians died during a fight for territory with Italian mafia groups. Giuseppe Setola, a leader of one of the local gangs, warned after that incident that no business would be allowed to take place without their approval and payment of “protection fee” said to be around £35,000.
“Nigerian organised crime is growing and we are deeply worried,” Head of Special Anti-Camorra Unit in Casal di Principe, a city in the country, Alessandro Tocco, said. “Though there is a seeming peace in place, but when this comes to an end, we will experience a new war in the streets,” he added.
Investigations and a number of arrests of members of the Black Axe cult by the police in Italy exposed how they were involved in all sorts of crimes including drug trafficking, extortion, advance fee fraud, prostitution, passport falsification and cloning of credit cards. According to internal documents released after investigation, the confraternity was discovered to be in the business of helping members to immigrate illegally to Italy and other neighbouring nations.
In other European countries such as Spain, Nigerian mafia gangs are said to be forming alliances with local cartels rather than trying to take complete control of the ‘streets’.
“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,” a recent report by Italy’s anti-mafia agency said.
The story is the same in the United Kingdom, where Nigerian criminal gangs specialised in drug trafficking and complex frauds costing the system at least £600m annually, are said to be dominating proceedings in this regard. Following the rise of these gangs, British and the US agencies gave a recent warning that “Nigerian gangs’ operations could soon lead to armed violence and outgrow established cartels from Colombia, Turkey, and Italy.”
The threat of Nigerian drug and cult gangs have grown so fierce in recent years that law enforcement agencies in the UK have established special units dedicated to tackling the growing menace.
“You won’t find Nigerians standing on a street corner selling drugs,” spokesperson for one of the agencies, NCIS, said. “They are strictly the middlemen. They survive because they work alongside other gangs. They have their finger in every organised crime pie. They have strong links with everyone from the Colombian cartels to the Turkish mafia. They have a reputation as reliable and trustworthy.
“The syndicates make use of hundreds of well-established Nigerian communities around the world as a cover for their activities. Tens of thousands of Nigerians can be found in the most unlikely locations — 50,000 live in São Paulo, Brazil, 25,000 in Bangkok, Thailand, and 500,000 in South Africa, where they dominate the crack trade,” the agency said.
Findings by a Saturday PUNCH report of October 24, 2015, revealed how many Nigerians now in drug business and members of cult gangs in foreign lands were forced into it as a result of certain circumstances especially the quest to conquer poverty and live fairly comfortable lives in their host countries.
For example, 27-year-old Ilo Chidera Alex, a native of Enugu, was in 2015 caught by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, while trying to smuggle 15.850kg of cocaine stashed inside make-up brushes brought in from Brazil. The drug, worth N126m, was packaged in Sao Paulo, Brazil, enroute Dubai to Abuja.
According to Alex, going into drug trafficking became his only option after being stranded in Brazil.
“I went to Brazil in search of job opportunities. In the process, I was stranded because I had no job and money to sustain myself. That was how I met a man who promised to buy my flight ticket back to Nigeria.
“He gave me the bag of makeup brushes to take to Nigeria and also promised to give me some money to start my own business. At the Abuja airport, the drug was discovered in my luggage,” he said.
The 27-year-old is not alone in this situation, everyday across Europe, America, Asia and other continents of the world, more Nigerians are lured into crimes of all sorts after being stranded in those places. While many in this category continue to endure the situation, hoping for a breakthrough that has remained elusive, a growing number have braved the odds by aligning with drug cartels and cult gangs, who dangle all sorts of promises before them in return for their service and loyalty to survive.
Spokesperson for the NDLEA, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, said many Nigerians now in the business of drug trafficking in Brazil were tricked into it. According to him, they realise this fact when it has become too late to back out.
“Some of the drug traffickers who were promised white-collar jobs before leaving Nigeria had no idea of the labour market in Brazil. Many do not have the relevant skills needed by employers.
“The cartel deliberately allows them to suffer to the point where offering them a flight ticket back home is seen as a big favour. Others are ashamed of coming home empty-handed and are tempted to smuggle drugs to earn $5,000 or more,” he said.
Confirming this tactics adopted by drug and cult gangs to lure individuals into their fold, President, Nigeria Union in South Africa, Mr. Ike Ayene, said that many Nigerian youths stranded and frustrated in the major capitals of the world were indeed being forced into these types of activities.
“We have a lot of them in South Africa. There have been instances where desperate Nigerians approach us to complain that the people who helped them to come to South Africa were putting pressure on them to go into drug dealing and other crimes.
“Our advice has always been that the individual should go back home or at least engage in a legal business. Crime does not pay and can never pay,” he said.
A former Minister of Education, Prof. Ihechukwu Madubuike, had during the 2014 National Conference in Abuja, said that 16,300 Nigerians were in foreign prisons, out of which 3719, all women, were in Canadian prisons alone. This, he said, were aside from those that had been executed for various offences.
Operating in more than 80 countries and established on all populated continents of the world, Nigerian criminal gangs are indeed among the most notorious across the world today, giving local and other cartels a run for their game. The mistrust and hate created by this fierce rivalry have continued to wreak havoc, spilling to other parts of the globe including back home in Nigeria.
