Arrestees include 34 from Laos, 21 from Pakistan and 5 from China; police suspect links to online marketing fraud, advance-payment scams and honey traps

Ctg Correspondent:

Police found no passports on the foreign nationals arrested during a raid on an eight-storey building in the Krishnachura Residential Area of Chattogram’s Khulshi last night over allegations of involvement in online scams.

Although police said the arrests were made over suspected online fraud, they have yet to determine the exact nature of the alleged scams or how the suspects were carrying them out.

Of the arrestees, 34 are from Laos, 21 from Pakistan, five from China, and one each from Nepal and Vietnam, according to police. Twenty of them are women. A child was also with the group.

At a press briefing held at Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) media centre this afternoon, Faisal Ahmmed, additional commissioner (crime and operations) of CMP, said, “We recovered 134 mobile phones and 57 laptops from them. However, no passport was found on anyone. We also found three Pakistani national identity cards and a Cambodian employment card.”

“They rented the entire building and had been carrying out various types of online fraud there. They have links with some local and foreign syndicates,” he said.

“Law enforcement agencies in Laos and Cambodia have recently launched extensive crackdown against criminals, and many of them have strategically moved to Bangladesh from those countries,” he added.

Asked about the nature of the scams, he said, “We are investigating the types of fraud involved. For now, cases have been filed against them under the Cyber Security Act with Khulshi Police Station.”

Several police officials said as no passports were found, police could not immediately determine which visas the foreign nationals had used to enter Bangladesh.

They also said many of the arrestees could neither speak nor understand English, making prolonged questioning difficult.

According to police, the owner of the building, a Bangladeshi living in Dubai, rented it out around six months ago for Tk 4-5 lakh a month. The foreign nationals lived in separate sections of the building based on their nationalities.

Arman Hossain, a cook employed to prepare meals for the Chinese and Cambodian nationals living in the building, told that he had been hired through a Chinese national on a monthly salary of Tk 40,000.

“I prepared meals and snacks every day for 30 to 35 people,” he said.

“My colleague Jewel Rana used to cook for the Pakistani and Nepali nationals,” he added.

A police source said the foreign nationals’ passports were reportedly being kept by a man named Mohsin, who had rented the building and was overseeing their activities.

A Counter Terrorism Division official of Chattogram Metropolitan Police, speaking to this correspondent on condition of anonymity, said many of the detainees appeared to have skills in online marketing.

“Based on our initial assessment, the syndicate may have been involved in taking advance payments from people by offering products online, as well as activities resembling honey traps,” the official said. “We suspect some of them have expertise in online marketing and online scams.”

“They were brought to Bangladesh from abroad with promises of jobs. A man named Mohsin is behind this,” the official said.

“The fact that the foreign nationals did not have their passports suggests they may have been prevented from leaving for another place or returning to their home countries of their own accord,” he added.

“They have their own interpreters, and they were recruited on fixed monthly salaries,” the official said.

Another official said, “They had arrived only recently, and the operation was still being set up. If we had been able to question them properly, more details might have emerged. We are looking for those involved.”

Mohammad Abdur Rahim, officer-in-charge of Khulshi Police Station, said, “We have learnt about a man named Mohsin, who reportedly has most of the passports. We will also contact the families of the foreign nationals to determine when each of them entered Bangladesh and what type of visa they used.”

Meanwhile, the seizure list prepared by police appears to contain inconsistencies. It does not specify which devices were seized from which individual. Instead, the list only provides descriptions of the devices.

Officials believe this could affect the investigation of the case.

Mohammad Shamim Hossain, deputy commissioner of the Counter Terrorism Unit, said, “We will conduct forensic examinations of the devices recovered from them. More information will emerge from the examinations.”