Emmanuel Adigwe
The police in Dubai have stated that during a coordinated raid, they recovered over 150 million dirhams (about N16 billion) in cash in the homes of some Nigerians living in the city a few weeks ago.
“We seized more than Dh150 million in cash from them and confiscated 13 luxury cars worth Dh25 million,” Dubai police chief, Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, told the city’s major daily.
According to the police, in an operation tagged, “Fox Hunt 2”, the crew of ten Nigerians and Ramon Abbas and Olalekan Ponle, popularly called Hushpupi and Woodberry were the target.
Also a video has since emerged and Dubai authorities said that 21 computers, 47 mobile phones, 15 memory sticks and five hard disks containing 119,580 in alleged fraud files were confiscated.
It was also revealed that a total of 1,926,400 victims were targets of the syndicate scheme that spanned several months and 13 luxury cars which were estimated to be worth over 25 million dirhams (N2.6 billion) were also seized from the gang.
The police disclosed that the twelve are all in custody and they have made statements but investigations into their case will continue and they will eventually be charged to court.
They were accused of internet fraud and being involved in business email compromise.
“Fox Hunt 2” has been described by Emirati authorities as a major breakthrough in their fight against cybercrimes.