Nigerian crime Nigerian crime has imported all over Europe the associative models created in Nigeria following the criminal involution of university fraternities (so-called cults) variously called (EYE, BLACK AXE, VIKING, MAPHITE).

It is an ethnic crime present in almost all the national territory and in every nucleus of Nigerian immigration settled in Italy, there is, almost always, the presence more or less active and incisive of one of these groups. The criminal activities of the various groups are

As it emerged, for example, in the operation "Zemra" carried out in June 2022 by the DIA Operational Centre in Bari towards 11 people, of Italian and Albanian nationality, with which an organization dedicated to the traffic of narcotic substances, of which also two subjects resident in Cerignola (FG).

For example, the operation "Zemra" of June 2022 and the operation "Kulmi" of June 2020

activity carried out and results achieved from Investment Directorate Antimativaa

Half-yearly report AT PARLIAMENT many and diversified: exploitation of prostitution, human trafficking, illegal immigration, drug trafficking, computer fraud, money laundering.

As stated in the course of investigations conducted by the Police Forces, the proceeds of the delittuosa activity are preferably remitted to Nigeria through various expedients75.

There have emerged on several occasions obvious evidence of collaboration between Nigerian subjects and Italian criminal groups in order to recycle illicit proceeds76.

However, the investigations would seem to restrict such contacts to occasional collaboration which, at least at the present time, would not seem to have stable links between the two groups.

The Nigerian criminal organizations manifest themselves with the typical characteristics of the autochthonous organizations, such as the capillary control of portions of territory, the omerity and the strong associative bond.

The high organizational level and the danger of Nigerian consortia are witnessed by the character of judicially recognized mafiasity to such forms of malavity.

It is an ethnic crime with a "multi-level" structure in which a part of the sodali operates as a mere tampering in the retailing. The Nigerian mob acts with local criminal groups who have a certain autonomy of action but who always respond to the mother house77.

In terms of economic and social danger, the c.d. secret cults are decisive, whose typical traits are the hierarchical organization, the paramilitary structure, the affiliation rites, the codes of behaviour and, more generally, a modus agendi that the Court of Cassation has repeatedly qualified as a typical connotation of "maphyosity"78.

Not always, however, the mafia connotation, contested by a structured Nigerian criminal group, finds confirmation in the different degrees of judgment. In this regard, the recent judgment with which Assize Court of Appeal of

Consider, for example, the operation "Hello bross" of the district Procura Antimafia of the capital of Abruzzo (proc.pen. n. 732/18 RGNR - 435/19 RG GIP of the Court of L'Aquila), conducted by the Polizia di Stato, which developed in 14 Italian provinces.

Le investigazioni condotte hanno consentito di acclarare la presenza ed operatività in Abruzzo di un sodalizio di tipo mafioso di cittadini nigeriani capeggiata da uno di loro, aderenti al culto BLACK AXE e dedito al compimento di frodi informatiche, truffe, sostituzione di persona, detenzione di carte di credito clonate e di passaporti falsi, traffico di stupefacenti e tramadolo, immigrazione clandestina, violazioni del TU immigrazione e sfruttamento della prostituzione, nonché al riciclaggio del denaro provento dei delitti commessi, con sodali residenti in Italia e all'estero.

Investigates have become the authors of numerous crimes, mainly in cybercrimes, thus making substantial gains that in part invested in Nigeria to buy properties.

A particular form of computer scam consisted in the purchase of bitcoins with which many goods and services were then found, in the darknet market, the numbers of credit cards cloned which were used in turn to buy on e-commerce sites numerous goods and services, such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, clothing and brand shoes, air tickets etc.

The money from the various crimes was reinvested in a real network of financial transactions that made the traceability of money more difficult, in an attempt to dissimulate the illicit origin of the funds.

An emblematic case, in this sense, is that of Villa Literno, in the casertano, which historically was the epicenter of the power of the BIDOGNETTI clan although, especially in recent years, foreign crime – especially the Central African – has imposed its presence in numerous criminal sectors.

In the territory, the Nigerian groups continue to stand out for the particularly aggressive ways in which they carry out the trafficking of narcotics and the trafficking of human beings, aimed at prostitution.

In this context, the results of the "Voodoo" operation appear.

11714/16 RGNR - 85681/2017 RG GIP of the 20 ottobre 2021) coordinated by the DDA of Cagliari and concluded by the Guardia di Finanza the 22 novembre 2021 against a criminal conspiracy of Nigerians aimed at the international money laundering of illegal capital, favoring illegal immigration and exploitation of the pro-

24803/2010, 4188/2012, 16353/2015 and 49462/2019 issued by Court of Cassation in the years 2010, 2012 and 2019 (from I The first two judgments, from II Sez. the third and the fifth.

2. Matrix Matrix Palermo79 has spoken for the acquittal from the crime referred to in the art. 416 bis c.p., for 4 of the 5 Nigerians belonging to the criminal association Black Axe, believing insufficient and contradictory the evidence of the mafia association object of prosecution in the first degree.

The activity of Nigerian crime, while extending itself to multiple criminal phenomena, is now consolidated in the financing and management of international drug trafficking.

The Nigerian consortia often relies on the use of informal payment systems that have been totally introduced by legal financial circuits and, as such, hardly interceptable.

For this reason it is particularly arduous for the Police Forces, to trace back to the origin, circulation and the final destination of the enlivened financial flows deriving from illegal activities.