Two local men charged with defrauding a Toronto widow of her life's savings will eventually face extradition to the United States on money-laundering charges, they said. Two weeks ago, at a news conference attended by FBI officers, Toronto police announced they had taken part in an international crackdown on a money-laundering network through which more than $5-billion flowed in just over a year.
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What police have also learned is that, when done on an "industrial" level as part of a professional global network, scams ruin lives on a scale they have rarely seen. But instead of drug or sex trafficking, it specializes in a crime many consider minor and non-violent: scamming.
Like any criminal organization, it focuses on profit, police say. Most often, the group is likened to the Mob or to biker gangs, especially as it spreads outside Nigeria.Īn investigation by The Globe and Mail that included interviews with about 20 people found that "Axemen," as they call themselves, are setting up chapters around the world, including in Canada. Once an idealistic university fraternity, the group has been linked to decades of murders and rapes, and its members are said to swear a blood oath. The Black Axe is feared in Nigeria, where it originated. So when two Toronto police officers and an RCMP analyst in British Columbia started documenting the existence of something called the "Black Axe, Canada Zone," they could not have predicted it would take them to funerals, suburban barbecue joints and deep into African history before they understood what they were seeing. Mapping a secret criminal hierarchy for the first time is a rare kind of detective work. Then there were stories, even old police files, attached to the people in the photos: a kidnapping, a man run over by a car, brutal beatings over what seemed to be a small slight.
The signs began to appear two years ago: photos on Facebook of men wearing odd, matching outfits. Canadian police say they are fighting a new kind of criminal organization.
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