- EFCC arrested 792 suspects including Nigerian, Chinese, Arab, and Filipino nationals who are allegedly involved in cryptocurrency investment fraud and romance scams
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has dismantled the largest ever Syndicate of people involved in alleged cybercrime and cryptocurrency investment fraud.
The anti-graft agency said it recorded a landmark operation in Lagos, last Tuesday, December 10, 2024 , smashing a “deadly syndicate of Cryptocurrency Investment Fraud and Romance Scam”.
The suspects, amounting to 792 persons were apprehended in a surprise operation at their hideout, a seven-storey edifice known as Big Leaf Building, on No.7, Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
According to the agency’s spokesman, Wilson uwujaren, the breakthrough followed actionable intelligence and months of surveillance and monitoring the activities of the syndicate.
Among the foreigners arrested are 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, two Kazakhstanis, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian.
He added that, the building which could be mistaken for a corporate headquarters of a financial establishment, was found to be used by the foreign nationals to train their Nigerian accomplices on how to initiate romance and investment scams and also use the identities of Nigerians to perpetrate their criminal activities.
All the floors are said to be equipped with high-end desktop computers.
On the 5th floor alone, investigators recovered 500 SIM cards of local telcos that were bought for criminal purposes.
Discussion about this post