The arrests were made during a joint operation between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), South African Police Service's Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks), South Africa's Crime Intelligence, Interpol, the South Africa Tactical Response Team and the South Africa Department of Home Affairs – Immigration.
"At HSI, we believe that by working with the South African government to dismantle these transnational mass marketing criminal organizations, we will collectively bring the perpetrators to justice and wherever possible, recoup the victims' losses," said HSI Pretoria Attaché Abraham Lugo. "Our collaboration with the South African Police Service, Interpol and other government agencies, will also increase public awareness of these crimes and hopefully will prevent people from falling victim to these schemes in the future."
"This is the ramification of the collaboration between South African Police Service and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations," said the National Head of the Hawks, Lieutenant General Anwa Dramat. "If criminals are able to interact with their fellows across the borders, we can do it better."
The operation comes after HSI special agents followed a financial fraud scam to Pretoria, mainly Sunnyside.
The U.S. federal charges allege that a West African transnational organized crime enterprise was involved in numerous complex financial fraud schemes over the Internet. The mass marketing fraud includes romance scams, reshipping scams, fraudulent check scams, work-at-home scams, along with bank, financial and credit card account takeovers.
The investigation was initiated by HSI special agents in October 2011, after U.S. law enforcement was contacted by a female victim in Mississippi, who was victimised in a sweetheart scam. The victim received a suspicious package in the mail requesting her to reship the merchandise to an address in Pretoria, South Africa.
The investigation later revealed that the merchandise was purchased using stolen personal identity information and fraudulent credit card information of persons in the United States. Investigators have so far identified hundreds of victims to this scam in the United States. This has resulted in the loss of millions of U.S. dollars.
This syndicate went for some years purchasing shipping labels from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), Federal Express, United Parcel Service and DHL with fraudulent credit card information or stolen identities. Once the merchandise reached South Africa, the suspects advertised it for sale on the Internet.
The operation came after an eight-count federal indictment was filed in the United States charging 18 individuals with wire fraud, bank fraud, access device fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, theft of government funds and money laundering. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi was granted arrest warrants for 12 individuals residing in South Africa and search warrants for associated properties in Pretoria.
The suspects, 11 Nigerians and one South African woman, are linked to this global scam. The suspects enriched themselves with illegally obtained funds.
During the operation, investigators seized computers, laptops, cell phones, notebooks and documents. The items will be surrendered to HSI for further investigation.
The suspects will appear in the Pretoria Magistrates' Court Wednesday on charges of fraud and theft, before they will be extradited to the United States to face prosecution in the Southern District of Mississippi.
Other members of this transnational criminal enterprise were arrested in Canada, California, Georgia, Indiana, New York, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
The HSI investigation continues.
The arrests were the result of an investigation led by HSI Gulfport and HSI Pretoria offices in partnership with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, South African Police Service, Toronto Police, HSI Cyber Crimes Center, U.S. Treasury Executive Office of Asset Forfeiture, HSI Ontario, HSI Charleston and HSI Atlanta. The U.S. Department of Justice's Organized Crime Gang Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia have filed related indictments in Charleston and Atlanta against five additional defendants.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs assisted in the provisional arrest warrants for the 11 Nigerian citizens and one South African in Pretoria and one Nigerian citizen in Toronto, Canada. A Nigerian citizen was arrested in Indianapolis, and three Nigerians were arrested in Atlanta. The remaining seven are U.S. citizens.
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