Top Nigerian mafia fugitive Jeff Joy has been extradited and arrested at Rome's Fiumicino Airport on charges of enslaving and trafficking Nigerian women to Italy, Spain and the Netherlands and forcing them into prostitution.
"This extradition represents a first, important example of cooperation between the authorities in Abuja in fighting the Nigerian mafias, which are among the most active foreign criminal associations," Italy's justice ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Together with her criminal associates, 48-year-old Joy used violence and threats to coerce the trafficking victims, including towards their relatives in Nigeria, according to local courts.
Italy's embassy and justice ministry worked with local magistrates and intelligence services to locate and arrest Joy in Nigeria last June and to extradite her.
A leading member of the Nigerian or 'black' mafia, which is being probed worldwide by Interpol, Joy had been on the run since 2010, when she was handed a binding 13-year prison sentence for her crimes.
Joy was one of a handful of women on an Italian police list of 100 'most dangerous' fugitives.
Besides the extradition accord that came into effect on 15 October 2020, the justice ministry has signed bilateral agreements with Nigeria on judicial assistance and on the transfer of felons, the ministry stated.
