Bengaluru: In a significant breakthrough, cybercrime investigators in Bengaluru have arrested three individuals, including a key suspect, in connection with the so-called FedEx scam.
The arrested suspects — Mukarram, Mansoor and Ibrahim — are all residents of Bengaluru. Mukarram is believed to the kingpin, while Ibrahim allegedly facilitated the transfer of proceeds of the crime to Dubai from Bengaluru via the Hawala route, according to investigators.
The South CEN Crime police began their investigation after a cybercrime complaint was registered on July 3.
The victim said cyber fraudsters accused him of sending "a FedEx package containing illegal items, including 140 grams of banned drug MDMA, three credit cards, five passports and four kg of clothes".
Over a period of 10 days, the victim was coerced to check into a hotel, placing him “under house arrest”. During this time, scamsters posing as CBI officers “interrogated” him on Skype and extorted Rs 30 lakh from him.
Police got the first major lead after tracing the money trail. The victim had transferred the money to two accounts. Police discovered that Rs 26 lakh eventually ended up in Mansoor’s bank account.
On September 10, police arrested Mansoor, an auto driver, along with Ibrahim from a bus stand in Kaval Byrasandra.
During questioning, Mansoor told the police he had transferred Rs 4 lakh to another person and had only Rs 11 lakh in his account. While police froze Rs 11 lakh on July 3, they discovered that another Rs 10.25 lakh had been sent from Bengaluru to Dubai through Hawala.
From Ibrahim, police recovered Rs 75,000 in cash, two mobile phones and an ATM card. On September 11, a court sent Mansoor and Ibrahim in police custody for seven days.
The duo subsequently told the police about Mukarram, their alleged recruiter, and other key players holed up in Cambodia and Dubai.
On September 12, police arrested Mukarram from his house in Thanisandra upon his return from Dubai.
Investigators discovered that Mukarram had travelled to Dubai in 2021 to work for a manpower recruiting agency. There, he met some Chinese nationals, including the mastermind behind the scam, who recruited him into their network.
"They used Mukarram to gather information about Karnataka police and their uniforms, and asked him to procure police uniforms and SIM cards. He contacted a dealer in Bengaluru who supplies uniforms to the police, but the dealer refused to comply without an official letter from the department," a senior officer said.
However, Mukarram managed to send Indian SIM cards to Dubai.
"In this case, the proceeds of the crime were not converted into cryptocurrency, which would have made it much harder to trace,” the officer added.