Police have arrested six members of a syndicate engaged in online gambling and cryptocurrency laundering.
The DB Cyber and Special Crime (South) Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) made the arrests during raids at a resort in Tongi, Gazipur, and later at a hotel in Cumilla Sadar, assisted by local intelligence police.
Those detained are Md Ariful Islam Rifat, 23, Md Arman Hossain Jihad, 23, Masud Hossain, 22, Abdul Rabbi, 23, Koushik Ahmed Shuvo, 23, and Moshiur Rahman Tareq, 20.
Detectives seized 6,600 SIM cards linked to bKash and Nagad MFS accounts, 67 additional SIMs, over 70 mobile devices, a laptop, and a microbus.
According to the DB, the syndicate processed transactions for multiple gambling websites and mobile apps using MFS agent accounts. Payment platforms such as Pay Kashma, Gopay, Lucky Pay, LQ Pay, XE Pay, and Cool Pay, mostly controlled by Chinese nationals, relied on MFS accounts for their accessibility and weaker oversight.
Proceeds were routed through agent and merchant accounts, then converted daily into cryptocurrency (USDT) via Binance, Bybit, and Bitget, before being transferred to wallets abroad.
Preliminary findings suggest around 200 payment companies operate in Bangladesh to handle gambling transactions, with daily volumes exceeding Tk1,000 crore.
Gopay alone, run by a Chinese national known as Nathan alias Alin, reportedly channels over Tk5 crore daily, while top firms launder more than 100,000 USDT.
Local coordinator Rifat managed the syndicate, earning commissions of 0.2–1 per cent of daily transactions. Half was distributed among vendors, agents, supervisors, and occasionally MFS officials. His earnings funded a lavish lifestyle, including two BMW cars—one recently damaged in an accident in the 300‑feet area.
Police are continuing efforts to recover assets and arrest additional suspects. A case has been filed, and legal proceedings are underway.
