The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has tracked down and secured the extradition of two Nigerian nationals accused of involvement in separate financially motivated sextortion schemes that allegedly resulted in the deaths of two American teenagers.
The suspects, Adebola Festus Adekunle, 26, and Mudashiru Afeez Olawale, 24, were arrested in Nigeria in August 2023 following investigations by the FBI into online sexual exploitation and sextortion targeting minors in the United States. They were extradited to the US on August 27, 2026, according to the US Department of Justice.
The two men were separately indicted in the United States and are now facing federal charges connected to alleged schemes involving the sexual exploitation and extortion of teenage boys.
According to US authorities, Adekunle is facing charges including sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, coercion and enticement of a minor, and interstate threats with intent to extort.
He appeared before a federal court in Oxford, Mississippi, on Friday following his extradition.
Olawale, who was arrested in Nigeria on August 9, 2023, is facing charges relating to the alleged sexual exploitation of minors, coercion and enticement, distribution of child sexual abuse material and interstate threatening communications. He appeared before a federal court in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The FBI said the alleged schemes involved financially motivated sextortion, in which victims were reportedly threatened with the release of intimate images unless they paid money.
The agency said one of the cases involved a minor whose death followed the alleged sextortion scheme. The US Justice Department stated that the two cases were connected to the deaths of teenagers in Mississippi and North Carolina.
FBI Director Kash Patel described Adekunle and Olawale as “high-value targets” and said the agency had worked with the US Department of Justice and Nigerian authorities to bring them back to the United States.
“They’ve been overseas for three years, but this FBI and our DOJ partners went and got them,” Patel said.
The extradition was facilitated with the assistance of the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs, the FBI Legal Attaché in Abuja and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), alongside other Nigerian authorities.
The EFCC had earlier confirmed that its Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 facilitated the extradition of the two suspects following separate FBI investigations into sextortion schemes targeting male minors, particularly teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17.
The commission said the alleged schemes involved the use of child sexual abuse material to threaten victims and demand money through channels including gift cards, money remitters and cryptocurrency.
The US Department of Justice said both cases were part of Operation Artemis, an FBI effort targeting financially motivated sextortion networks operating from Nigeria and other locations.
US authorities said the charges against Adekunle and Olawale are allegations and that both men are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.