Ten people, including a police officer, were arrested last Friday by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in a major operation.
The operation began last Thursday and managed to save a Tunisian national from losing Ksh.1 billion when he was about to buy one tonne of counterfeit gold.
DCI head Amin Mohammed visited the crime scene at Garden Estate in Nairobi, where the scammers used a fancy office to deceive businessmen with fake gold and counterfeit dollars.
This operation led to the arrest of 10 individuals, which included a police officer working at the DCI offices in Kitui.
It’s suspected that this officer was part of those protecting the scammers.
DCI Amin explained, “The operation started all the way in Tunisia when they claimed they have the capacity of selling him gold…when he suspected and reported the matter to us”
The victim arrived in Kenya around 3 am last Friday.
After waiting for an hour with no one to pick him up, a taxi driver convinced him that he’d take him safely to his destination.
The victim was then taken to Ngara in Nairobi, where he stayed hidden until Thursday.
On Thursday, he was asked to come to the Garden Estate office.
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He was told to pay Ksh.400 million before seeing the gold.
After a sample was verified, he was supposed to pay the remaining Ksh.600 million.
However, he didn’t come alone.
Detectives, along with the DCI’s tactical team, raided the office, arresting 10 people.
Two individuals, one of them possibly armed, managed to escape by tearing through a shade net fence, which was raised to increase privacy.
“This is a huge cartel that likes to drop big names to intimidate officers, and they also operate in a very sophisticated manner,” DCI Amin added.
The DCI boss is now investigating a sitting Senator, two sitting Members of Parliament, and senior officers in the National Police Service (NPS) who made desperate calls to try to free the suspects.
The scammers also deal in counterfeit money kept in metal boxes in one of the rooms.
“Many victims have lost humongous amounts of money, they were almost making our country particularly Kilimani area the centre of their operations but we are now coming for them,” Amin emphasized.
The scammers set up full-fledged offices to use as addresses for their multimillion-dollar scams.
Some pose as government officials.
“Some pretend to be police officers, others KRA, others even customs officers complete with documentation that we have since discovered are fake documents,” Amin pointed out.
The confiscated items, including a pistol, phones, and many metal boxes used to store fake money and gold, were taken to the DCI headquarters.
The suspects are expected to appear in court on Monday.
