Overview
- Federal prosecutors say Adebola Festus Adekunle and Mudasiru Afeez Olawale were taken from Nigeria to the United States in late August 2026 to face separate indictments in Mississippi and North Carolina for financially motivated sextortion of minors.
- Authorities charged Adekunle with sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, coercion and enticement, and interstate threats, and charged Olawale with related exploitation, distribution of child pornography, enticement and threatening communications tied to another death.
- Both men were arrested in Nigeria in August 2023 after an FBI operation and were extradited with help from the DOJ’s Office of International Affairs, the FBI legal attaché in Abuja, Nigeria’s Attorney General, the Federal Ministry of Justice and the EFCC.
- The child‑exploitation‑resulting‑in‑death counts carry a mandatory minimum of 30 years and other counts allow up to life in prison; both defendants appeared in U.S. federal court and now await trial.
- The DOJ says these prosecutions are part of Operation Artemis, a wider campaign to dismantle Nigeria‑based sextortion networks blamed for dozens of U.S. teen suicides, and officials say the extraditions signal further cross‑border enforcement ahead.