A box that can make dollars!
They enter Bangladesh with business or visit visas.
After coming here from Nigeria, they throw away their passports to ensure that they cannot be traced, and start living as illegal migrants.
During their stay, they move into flats by paying a higher than usual rent, so that they would not be requested to give any sort of documents. They would then get involved in criminal activities like financial frauds, narcotics trade and smuggling.
The illegally pocketed money would then be deposited in local accounts, which the syndicate takes for "rent" to avoid law enforcers' eyes.
Finally, the money is sent to Nigeria through hundi.
This is how a section of Nigerians, joining hands with some Bangladeshis, are leading an organised syndicate, which pockets money from people after luring them with attractive gifts from abroad or investment opportunities.
Although the criminals occasionally get arrested, they manage to secure bail with assistance from lawyers, and go back into their lives of crime.
While investigating a fraud case filed with Paltan Police Station recently, police's detective branch (DB) got to know the details and arrested 11 Nigerians and one of their Bangladeshi partners.
The arrestees are Henry Osita Okechukwu, Chisom Emmanuel Obiajulu, Okake Peter, Obina Sunday, Oneka Mba, Chisom Anthony Ekwenze, Okoye Azubike Cyprian, Onuorah Ozoemena Daniel, Anoruka Ginika Francis, Lockey, Ndommadu chinedu and Bangladeshi Chadni Akter.
Osita and Chisom are the gang's leaders, who mainly coordinate with the Bangladeshi partners, and one Biplob Lashkar is in charge of managing bank accounts for transactions.
Arrestee Chadni's main role is to act as a fake customs official to dupe people.
Mashiur Rahman, deputy commissioner (Gulshan division) of DB, said the arrestees were earlier detained in 2020, but they managed to secure bail within eight to nine months.
"In many cases, as these arrestees have no permanent address, they often disappear after getting bail from jail," he told The Daily Star yesterday.
He, however, said they are not supposed to get bail without passport validity. "We will inform these issues to the ministry [concerned] to impose strict restrictions."
This newspaper managed to talk to a couple of Nigerians when they were presented before a Dhaka court.
Regarding the fraud, Osita said they mainly defrauded Bangladeshis in a couple of ways.
One way is targeting a Facebook profile and sending them a friend request using an account with a foreign woman's picture. Once the request is accepted, they build rapport with the target, and talk about sending an attractive gift from abroad as a token of gratitude, said Osita.
Some days later, Chadni calls the target, pretending to be a customs official, and says a charge has to be paid to release the gift.
Like this, they would get the money and then stop all communication.
In many cases, the criminals pretended to be a woman working in the US military. The woman would say that she is stationed in Syria and needs to deposit a huge sum of money. She then mentions that she is sending it to Bangladesh.
After that, a routine similar to the fake customs official one starts.
If anyone refused to pay up, the criminals threatened the target, saying that a money-laundering case will be filed, said investigators quoting arrestees.
The third way is the strangest one. The gang lured targets by sending them a video of a box that can create dollars by just putting in some cotton and chemicals.
The criminals would say that they already have huge sums of dollars and do not need the box anymore. For an amount, the box can be handed over to the targets, said investigators.
DC Mashiur said the arrestees used to embezzle Tk 6 to 7 lakh from each of the victims.
"There are cases against all the arrestees. We have got some details of the absconding Bangladeshi partners of the syndicate, and a drive is underway to arrest them," he added.
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