Two Nigerian men have been flown to the United States to stand trial in separate sextortion cases that prosecutors say targeted underage victims and were tied to the deaths of teenagers in Mississippi and North Carolina.
The US Justice Department said Adebola Festus Adekunle, 26, from Lagos, and Mudasiru Afeez Olawale, 24, were handed over after arrests in Nigeria in August 2023. Both men were taken into American custody on 27 August with help from Nigerian authorities and FBI officers who travelled to the country. Each appeared in federal court on Tuesday, Adekunle in Oxford, Mississippi, and Olawale in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Officials described the operation as part of a broader FBI effort against financially driven sexual extortion of minors in the United States. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the cases form part of a wider push to break up foreign networks blamed for exploitation that has been linked to dozens of American teen suicides. FBI Director Kash Patel said the two men had been sought for years and were now back on US soil to face trial.
Adekunle is accused of sexually exploiting a Mississippi minor in a scheme that prosecutors say led to the victim’s death. He faces counts of sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, production of child sexual abuse material, coercion and enticement of a minor, and interstate threats made with intent to extort. If convicted, he could receive life in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 30 years on the charge tied to the child’s death. The FBI Jackson Field Office, the bureau’s violent crimes against children unit, its international operations arm, and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office are handling the investigation.
Olawale is charged in North Carolina over the financially motivated sextortion of one minor and the sextortion and death of another. His indictment, dated August 2023, includes sexual exploitation of minors resulting in death, enticement, interstate threatening communications, and distribution of child pornography. He also faces a possible life sentence and the same 30 year minimum on the death related count. That case is being pursued by FBI Charlotte’s Greensboro office and the Surry County Sheriff’s Office. US Attorney Dan Bishop said the extradition comes nearly five years after the alleged conduct and three years after the indictment.
Reports notes that the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the FBI legal attaché in Abuja, and agents from the Jackson and Greensboro offices took part in the transfer. Nigerian support came from the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Justice’s international criminal justice cooperation department, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
