Dubai Police has released a video showing the moment Hushpuppi and his cohorts were arrested in an operation dubbed ‘Fox Hunt 2’
In a video shared by the police, officers explained how they arrested Nigerian gang leader Hushpuppi.
Hushpuppi’s scam was to create websites that looked identical to well-known companies and banks, the video alleged.
Hushpuppi and his team then used emails and messages to prompt people to log in or make payments on the fake sites. The gang hacked corporate emails and directed huge payments by companies towards accounts they controlled.
A senior prosecutor told The National: “They would send out letters from email addresses almost identical to those of legitimate companies, targeting customers of these companies, with the purpose of diverting payments to themselves.
“Initial information includes that he was part of this gang which fraudulently obtained cash and cars from people.
“His statement was taken by prosecution but this is just the beginning of prosecution investigations.”
According to Expert Major General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, the suspects were caught in a series of synchronised raids by six SWAT teams from Dubai Police.
“The operation was carried out in a highly professional manner in terms of planning and execution as well as setting a zero hour to take down all gang members in the same time,” Al Mansouri said.
Police confiscated 21 computers, 47 smartphones, 15 memory cards, five hard disks containing 119,580 fraud files as well as addresses of nearly two million victims.
Read also: Alleged Fraud: Hushpuppi Set To Be Extradited to Nigeria
During the arrest, police found a huge amount of data on individuals, companies, bank accounts, credit cards as well as documents of money laundering, online fraud and hacking accounts of victims outside the UAE.
“The forged documents pertained to online fraud outside the country. The fraud was worth more than Dh1.6 billion. We seized more than Dh150 million in cash from them and confiscated 13 luxury cars worth Dh25 million,” Brig Al Jallaf said.
Watch video below: