Organised crime in Nigeria

Organised crime in Nigeria
Nigerian mafia
Founding locationNigeria
Years active1980s–present
TerritoryNigeria, Africa, Europe, Canada, United States
EthnicityNigerians
Membership30,000 full members
300,000 associates
Activitiesscams, drug trafficking, drug production, money laundering, arms trafficking, human smuggling, trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation, prostitution exploitation, illegal waste smuggling, murder, kidnapping, corruption
AlliesBlack Axe

Organised crime in Nigeria includes activities by fraudsters, bandits (such as looting and kidnappings on major highways), drug traffickers and racketeers, which have spread across Western Africa. Nigerian criminal gangs rose to prominence in the 1980s, owing much to the globalisation of the world's economies and the high level of lawlessness and corruption in the country.