Like americafyeah I'm still kinda doubtful about something like a real "Nigerian mafia" existing. Everything I read about them leaves me the impression that they're more independent small crews of drug smugglers and fraudsters that generally speaking (exceptions exist of course) have little interest in territory. The gangs they're speaking of in Italy are nothing but petty goons. In general, I feel it's hype more than anything else.
Anything that americafyeah speaks on in regards to Nigerian OC should be taken with a grain of salt. Remember this the same character making threads about gangs don't exist anymore in L.A & Chicago.
That's the general structure that I spoke about many times. It's an ad-hoc or horizontal network which is flexible and adaptable to it's environment. There are de facto supervisors that organized a crew ( generally along ethnic/tribal/famaly lines) to engage in racketeering activities. Afterwards they disperse and re emerged later elsewhere. Yet you have some syndicates with a basic 3 tier structure to facilitate other activities. The grand picture is a global traders and merchant type structure with racketeers linking with each other from different countries.
A hierarchical structure with layers of insulation isn't necessary for Nigerian/West African OC nor does that type of structure always defines a group to be a " mafia".
