A 26-year-old Nigerian, Afeez Adewale, has been handed over to the United States to answer charges connected to an alleged sexual extortion scheme and the death of a young man in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The development was announced by US Attorney David Metcalf in a statement released on Wednesday by the United States Department of Justice.
According to the statement, Adewale faces charges bordering on wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He made his first appearance at a federal court in Philadelphia on Tuesday before US Magistrate Judge Lynne Sitarski.
Adewale was initially arrested in Nigeria on August 17, 2023, during a broader crackdown carried out in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation targeting individuals accused of sexually extorting minors in the US.
He was subsequently extradited to the United States on February 13, 2026. The process involved the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the FBI Legal Attaché in Abuja, and the FBI, which took custody of him upon arrival.
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“The support and assistance of Nigerian security authorities was essential to this effort, notably that of Nigeria’s Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Justice’s International Criminal Justice Cooperation Department, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,” the statement read.
Adewale is not the only Nigerian linked to the case. His co-defendants, 27-year-old Imoleayo Aina, also known as Alice Dave, and 26-year-old Samuel Abiodun, were previously extradited to the US in August 2024.
Abiodun later admitted guilt to charges of money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud. In June 2025, he was sentenced to five years in prison by US District Judge Joel H. Slomsky.
Aina also pleaded guilty to several offences, including cyberstalking, interstate threat to injure reputation, receiving proceeds of extortion, money laundering conspiracy, and wire fraud. She was sentenced in October 2025 by Judge Slomsky to six years’ imprisonment.
