The Criminal Investigation Department arrested four people involved with the illicit online gambling platform 1xBet, whose rackets siphoned off around Tk 12 crore per month.

The arrestees are -- Mahbubul Alam,30, Lokman Hossain alias Raihan,25, Hasibur Rahman,26, and Suman Ali,26.

They were arrested from Cumilla and Dhaka on Monday, CID Spokesperson Additional Superintendent of Police Azad Rahman, said yesterday.

During the raid, the CID seized 12 phones, 27 SIM cards, 5 MFS agent SIM cards, cash of Tk 5.39 lakh and digital currency worth Tk 4.20 lakh.

Many of the betting sites, including 1xBet, are managed from Russia. Local control managers are appointed, who, in turn, appoint gambling agents.

The CID said that one of the Bangladeshi agents for 1xBet is one Saddam from Meherpur district. Hasibur and Suman hailed from the same district. Saddam appointed Hasibur and Suman as agents to oversee his gambling operations.

To evade law enforcement, Saddam rented a house for them in the capital's Jatrabari area from where Hasibur and Sumon conducted the operations.

This gang operated covertly in Dhaka, posing as onion traders. They used mobile financial services (MFS) agent SIM cards from various districts in Bangladesh, including Meherpur, to maintain anonymity, said the CID official.

The investigators found that this gang siphoned off an estimated Tk 3 crore abroad per month through online gambling on 1xBet.

Meanwhile, Mahbubul was operating an online gambling business under the guise of his uncle, Anwar, and other neighbours, by acquiring MFS agent SIM cards, according to CID.

Lokman helped Mahbubul by supplying SIM cards and facilitating transactions through MFS agents as he is a Distributor Sales Officer (DSO) associated with an MFS house.

The investigation further revealed that Mahbubul's gang from Cumilla managed to siphon off an average of Tk 9 crore from the country every month through online gambling on 1xBet, according to CID.