Crime
How high does Nigeria rank in Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index?
Nigeria
Nigeria is home to a substantial network of organised crime, active especially in drug trafficking. Nigerian criminal groups are heavily involved in drug trafficking, shipping heroin from Asian countries to Europe and America; and cocaine from South America to Europe and South Africa. The various Nigerian Confraternities or "campus cults" are active in both organised crime and in political violence as well as providing a network of corruption within Nigeria. As confraternities have extensive connections with political and military figures, they offer excellent alumni networking opportunities. The Supreme Vikings Confraternity, for example, boasts that twelve members of the Rivers State House of Assembly are cult members. On lower levels of society, there are the "area boys", organised gangs mostly active in Lagos who specialise in mugging and small-scale drug dealing. According to official statistics, gang violence in Lagos resulted in 273 civilians and 84 policemen killed in the period of August 2000 to May 2001. Internationally, Nigeria is infamous for a form of bank fraud dubbed "419", a type of advance fee fraud (named after Section 419 of the Nigerian Penal Code) along with the "Nigerian scam", a form of confidence trick practised by individuals and criminal syndicates. These scams involve a complicit Nigerian bank (the laws being set up loosely to allow it) and a scammer who claims to have money he needs to obtain from that bank. The victim is talked into exchanging bank account information on the premise that the money will be transferred to him, and then he'll get to keep a cut. In reality, money is taken out instead, and/or large fees (which seem small in comparison with the imaginary wealth he awaits) are deducted. In 2003, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (or EFCC) was created, ostensibly to combat this and other forms of organised financial crime. There is also some piracy in Nigeria, with attacks mainly directed at smaller ships shuttling employees and materials belonging to the oil companies with any involvement in oil exploration in the Niger Delta. From 1 January 2007 to 29 October 2007, twenty-six pirate attacks were recorded. Nigeria is also pervaded by political corruption. It is ranked 143 out of 182 countries in Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index. More than $400 billion was stolen from the treasury by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999.