British teens recruited to world's most feared mafia - the Black Axe gang

A criminal gang known as Black Axe is targeting young people in the UK and Ireland for its money laundering and data stealing operations. Pictured are members being arrested as part of an Interpol probe (Picture: Interpol)

British teenagers are being lured into joining a Nigerian gang that forces recruits to drink blood to prove their loyalty.

Law enforcement agencies warn that the Black Axe gang is preying upon debt-ridden students and professionals working at large organisations,offering them an opportunity to make fast cash.

Some are used as ‘money mules’ who facilitate the transfer of fraudulent money through their bank accounts.

Multinational gangs including Black Axe are now responsible for a majority of the world’s cyberfraud,according to Interpol.

Recruits,who are often male,are first required to undergo an ‘initiation’ ceremony which involves being stripped,tortured and made to drink blood,before they become ‘Axemen’.

Not only does the gang target well-healed professionals,many of its recruiters often hold jobs in the IT industry.

Detectives say the gang uses Snapchat to distribute registration forms,taking advantage of instantly disappearing ‘snap’ messages to cover up their fraudulent activities,the Irish Times reported.

However,the social network’s parent company Snap Inc. insisted content suspected to be illegal is saved and reported to authorities.

Black Axe,which operates as a mafia-style organisation,has an estimated 30,000 members across dozens of countries worldwide.

Tomonobu Kaya said that the rise of fintech banks,which operate digitally and have little to no physical presence,have helped facilitate the quick and seamless transfer of money around the world.

In another operation,three members of the same family in the UK were jailed for more than 16 years after being found to have worked with Black Axe’s alleged leader.

The Nakpodia siblings laundered more than £1million through email and phone scams between 2007 and 2015 for their Nigerian-based brother-in-law Augustus Bemigho-Eyeoyibo.

A BBC investigation into the Nigerian gang also found evidence of severe torture and brutality from pictures of dead bodies shared on social media.