{"id":120477,"date":"2021-04-28T09:34:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T01:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=120477"},"modified":"2021-04-28T09:34:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T01:34:25","slug":"italian-police-arrest-30-nigerian-suspected-gang-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=120477","title":{"rendered":"Italian police arrest 30 Nigerian suspected gang members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/africa\/Italian-police-arrest-30-Nigerian-suspected-gang-members-1244272?gallery=1\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/246\/24673632.295.jpg\" alt=\"Italian police officers stand in front of St. Peter's basilica at Vatican\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><em>Italian police officers stand in front of St. Peter&#8217;s basilica at Vatican<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROME, April 28 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) &#8212; Italian police said they have arrested 30 Nigerian nationals suspected to be members of a mafia group from 14 provinces across the country.<br><br>The operation dubbed \u2018Black Axe\u2019 began in L&#8217;Aquila, the capital of the Abruzzo region, targeting mafia members associated with drug trafficking, prostitution, illegal immigration, internet fraud, \u2018romantic fraud\u2019, and money laundering.<br><br>The Italian police also managed to arrest the gang leader during a search that involved 25 premises.<br><br>&#8220;We have apprehended the leader of a major organization,&#8221; said police.<br><br>They face almost 100 charges, police said.<br><br>The Black Axe has established a foothold in Italy over the decade. They often control the day-to-day street crimes and have even muscled out the known native Italian gangs like Ndranghetta, Cosa Nostra and Camorra.<br><br>A recent attack by the Italian police nubbed over 74 members of the Nigerian mafia including their leader, 50-year-old Emmanuel \u201cBoogye\u201d Okenwe.<br><br>The Black Axe is one of the notorious secret societies that stemmed from Nigeria in the 1970s.<br><br>They were initially called the Neo Black Movement and had aimed to liberate the black race according to its founders.<br><br>The group is well organized and often has a chain of command, use secret words, signs and weapons matching the same unique color.<br><br>They have been banned in Nigeria and many of its followers have been arrested and prosecuted.<br><br>They have continued to exist over the years and their influence is still seen in universities and other institutions despite the ban. &#8212;  NNN-AFRICANEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Italian police officers stand in front of St. Peter&#8217;s basilica at Vatican ROME, April 28 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) &#8212; Italian police said they have arrested 30 Nigerian nationals suspected to be members of a mafia group from 14 provinces across the country. The operation dubbed \u2018Black Axe\u2019 began in L&#8217;Aquila, the capital of the Abruzzo region, targeting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":120479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120477"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}