Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Detective Branch (DB) has arrested nine people, including six Chinese nationals, in connection with an online gambling, cyber fraud and illegal digital financial transaction network.
The arrests were made by the Cyber and Special Crime (South) Division of DB through operations in Uttara and Turag areas of the capital.
The arrested foreign nationals are MA Jie, 33, Zhang Jiahao, 22, Liu Jinjie, 32, Wang Shibo, 24, Chang Tiantian, 29 and James Zhu, 43. The local arrestees are Md Kawsar Hossain, 24, Md Abdul Karim, 28 and Rokon Uddin, 40.
According to DB sources, the Financial Crime Investigation Team detected suspicious online activity during routine cyber monitoring on Wednesday morning. Officers identified online gambling advertisements, deposit bonus offers and illegal transactions using bKash and Nagad through Facebook, YouTube, Telegram groups and fake websites. The platforms allegedly lured users with promises of double or triple returns in a short time.
Based on the information, police arrested Kawsar, Karim and Rokon from Sector 13 under Uttara West Police Station. At the same time, a separate drive was conducted around 9:10am in Rupayan Housing Estate under Turag Police Station, where the six Chinese nationals were arrested.
During the operations, law enforcement recovered three 64-port GSM/GPRS SIM module machines (VoIP GSM Gateway), one 8-port GSM/GPRS SIM module machine and one 256-port GSM/GPRS SIM module machine. Police also seized around 280 SIM cards from different operators, multiple laptops including Apple MacBook, Lenovo, Asus, HP and Redmi devices, 20 smartphones of various brands, Tk6.05 lakh in cash, passports and national identity documents of foreign nationals, and a Toyota microbus.
In preliminary interrogation, the arrestees said they were part of an organised syndicate involved in online gambling, fraud, illegal e-transactions and money laundering. They allegedly collected agent SIM cards registered in others’ names from different parts of the country and used GSM gateway devices to operate hundreds of SIMs simultaneously.
These SIMs were used to handle gambling money, fraudulent transactions and illegal financial transfers. The group also operated its own gambling portals and allegedly transferred large sums of money abroad, particularly to China.
A case has been filed against the arrested individuals with Ramna Police Station under the Cyber Security Act.
