Thus ended, with the arrival at Rome Ciampino airport, the long inaction of Jeff Joy, a leading exponent of the Nigerian mafia, one of the few women included in the list of 100 dangerous fugitives.
The Nigerian mafia, due to its dangerousness and the international network on which it operates, is considered one of the most powerful emerging criminal organizations in the world, so much so that it is subject to widespread monitoring in every country by Interpol.
From what emerges from the investigations carried out from 2006 to 2007 by the Flying Squad of Ancona, Jeff Joy had a leading role in favoring the arrival in Italy, Holland and Spain of Nigerian girls who were initiated into the criminal business of prostitution with the use of violence and threats of all kinds, also extended to family members who remained at home.
On June 4, 2022, the fugitive had been arrested in Nigeria by the local intelligence services at the end of an intense research activity carried out also with missions in Nigeria by officials of the International Police Cooperation Service (SCIP). The location of Jeff Joy was the result of the collaboration ensured by the Italian Immigration Expert in Nigeria who supported the action of the local police forces to locate the place where the woman lived.
The extradition of the Nigerian maman, which represents a unicum in relations between Italy and Nigeria being the first pilot case in the implementation of the extradition treaty which entered into force in 2020, was possible thanks to the activity carried out on site by the Nigerian investigating judiciary and at the instigation of the Italian ambassador in Nigeria in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Justice.
“Today Africa is confirmed as a strategic area for the search for fugitives and the fight against organized crime. Developing African countries also represent elective places for the laundering of illicit capital from organized crime and Italy is committed to international level to facilitate, through penal and administrative instruments, the tracing of illicit assets of the mafias for their seizure and confiscation”, underlined the prefect Vittorio Rizzi, Central Director of the criminal police on whom international operational cooperation depends on the sidelines of the operation of police.
