Gardaí have identified 1,600 people linked to an international gang specialising in fraud and money laundering in the Republic, including 100 members responsible for its direction.
Though the amount of money confirmed stolen and laundered by the Black Axe gang in Ireland has now reached almost €100 million, gardaí believe the true figure is much higher.
Some members of the Garda believe the scale of the Black Axe gang’s activities means it is generating profits in Ireland that rival the domestic drugs trade, perhaps even surpassing it.
The Irish Times has learned that while the Black Axe gang in Ireland initially specialised in laundering large sums of money via the Irish banking system after it was stolen abroad, its tactics have changed of late. It is now primarily focused on taking over the bank accounts of unsuspecting victims in the country.
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The Black Axe gang: a new frontier in Irish crime (2022)
The proceeds of bank account takeover fraud exceeded €13 million last year, compared to €4 million in 2020. These crimes are linked to bogus texts purporting to come from the pillar banks along with cloned websites identical to those used by those banks.
Unsuspecting bank customers are tricked into sharing their account login details, believing they are being directed by their banks to log into their accounts to resolve stated problems. Once Black Axe gang members gain access to an account, they add other accounts they already control as beneficiaries. They then quickly transfer as much money as possible into those accounts.
More than 1,400 money-mule bank accounts have now been identified in Ireland. These are accounts held by people known as “money mules” who agree to allow the accounts to be used to take receipt of defrauded money in exchange for a fee, though they are rarely paid.
Many money mules are recruited in Ireland at social gatherings, often linked to college campuses, and in other settings, with the network of Black Axe recruiters now nationwide. Gardaí suspect there are several thousand other money-mule accounts in the Republic that have not yet been confirmed as linked to the Black Axe gang.
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Gardaí began investigating the gang in 2020 under Operation Skein, carried out by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau. Garda sources have confirmed this has resulted in:
– Almost 1,600 people in Ireland being identified as connected to the gang, including 610 suspects arrested;
– More than 350 people being prosecuted, with 40 juvenile offenders dealt with via the Garda’s youth diversion programme;
– A total of 100 senior, or management-rank, figures being identified, including those who recruit mules, facilitators and gang leaders;
– More than 300 money mules so far being arrested;
– Some 18 senior offenders being prosecuted under gangland legislation for directing, or participating in, a crime gang, with seven cases already concluded to sentencing.
Garda sources noted the Black Axe’s cyber-enabled frauds are much more lucrative, and lower-risk, than drug dealing, as it is not necessary to smuggle contraband into the country and sell it on.
Black Axe was started in Nigeria in 1977, initially as a university-based fraternity or cult whose logo at the time was a slave’s arms in shackles being broken by a black axe. However, it morphed into an organised crime group involved in drug dealing, murder, prostitution, people trafficking, gun-running and intimidation. It now has cells globally, including a rapidly growing presence in Ireland over the past five years.
It has proven adept at harnessing rapid technological advances – internet, mobile phones, social media, dating apps and online banking – to carry out cyber-enabled fraud. Its activities also include bogus invoice fraud, romance fraud, bank account takeovers and other schemes.
The gang recruits money mules to take receipt of money which is then withdrawn, converting it into cash, or it is moved between accounts around the world to launder it and frustrate law enforcement freezing it before it is lost.
