A Nigerian lady who has been wanted in Italy since 2010 has been flown back to Rome, according to an Italian police statement issued on Wednesday, March 8, 2023.
Joy Jeff, 48, was convicted in absentia and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2010 for criminal conspiracy, slavery, human trafficking, and living off pro,stitution revenues.
According to authorities, the fugitive was one of the few women on Italy’s most-wanted list, and she was a significant role in the Nigerian mafia.
A deal negotiated by Nigeria and Italy in 2020 permitted the extradition. According to the statement, she was detained in Nigeria on June 4, 2022, on an international warrant issued by Italy.
Investigators in Ancona, Italy’s easternmost city, said Jeff was a key figure in trafficking women to Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands, where they were forced into prostitution through violence and threats. In her absence, she was convicted.
The woman was flown from the Nigerian city of Abuja to Ciampino airport in Rome, where she was hauled away in a wheelchair by police, according to video published by the Italian police.
“The criminal is one of the few women included in the list of 100 dangerous fugitives, drawn up by the integrated joint group for the search for fugitives of the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police,” the Italian police stated.
“This extradition represents the first provision under the extradition treaty between Italy and Nigeria, signed in 2020, and was possible thanks to the joint work of the Nigerian judiciary, the Italian ambassador in Nigeria and the Italian Ministry of Justice.
“Following an investigation by officials of the International Police Cooperation Service (SCIP) in the African country and the issuance of a red notice in 2010, the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian intelligence service, managed to track down and arrest the woman on June 4, 2022, thanks also to the collaboration between the Italian immigration expert in Nigeria and the local police forces.”
“The statement quoted Vittorio Rizzi, deputy chief of police, as saying, “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 the illicit capital of organised crime and Italy is committed at an international level to facilitate, through penal and administrative instruments, the tracing of the illicit assets of the mafias for their seizure and confiscate.”