Nigeria is home to a substantial network of organized 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 organized 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", organized gangs mostly active in Lagos
who specialize 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 crime 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 practiced by individuals and criminal syndicates. In 2003, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (or EFCC) was created to combat this and other forms of organized 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 January 1, 2007 to October 15, 2007, twenty-six pirate attacks were recorded
