Three men who were a part of the Black Axe gang have been jailed for scamming an elderly woman out of her life savings in Ireland.

The international and notorious Black Axe gang is one of the world's biggest fraud gangs and is behind many of the romance scams across Ireland.A romance scam is where criminals act affectionately toward vulnerable victims in order to get them to send money.

In this case, the men posed as 'Neil Turner' on the dating site, Plenty of Fish. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that in November 2019, the elderly woman met the catfish and began growing closer to him before sending him over 250,000 Euros to 'help him with his business' over a sixth-month period.The profile was linked to three Nigerian men who lived in Ireland.

Omowale Owolabi (31) pleaded guilty to theft. Raak Sami Sadu (32) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud. Samson Ajayi (33) pleaded guilty to money laundering. The group are believed to have sent the money straight to accounts linked to fake companies set up in Turkey and Vietnam. From there, the gang are believed to have used the money to buy products that were shipped back to Nigeria and then sold.

Black Axe is a gang that originated in Nigeria in 1977 and now operates as an international criminal organization.According to BBC Africa, the gang became the most far-reaching and dangerous organised crime group in the world. The group are linked to several different crimes including murder.In 2021, the group attempted to steal €1m in welfare fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland. The group are believed to have committed several romance fraud incidents in Ireland similar to that of which three members were sentenced to prison.