Six Chinese among nine arrested over online gambling, cyber fraud in Dhaka

Detectives have arrested nine members of a gang involved in online gambling, cyber fraud and illegal digital financial transactions in the capital's Uttara and Turag areas. Six of those arrested are Chinese nationals.

DB Additional Commissioner Shafiqul Islam disclosed the information at a press conference at the DMP Media Centre on Mintoo Road on Thursday, May 14.

The arrested Chinese nationals are M A G, Zhang Jiahao, Liu Jinji, Wang Shibo, Chang Tiantian and James Zhu. The three Bangladeshis arrested are Kawsar Hossain, Abdul Karim and Rokon Uddin.

During routine cyber monitoring, detectives found promotional content for online gambling on Facebook, YouTube, Telegram groups and various fake websites, along with suspicious transactions through bKash and Nagad. Raids were conducted in Uttara Sector 13 and the Rupayan Housing Estate in Turag.

Police seized three 64-port, one 8-port, and one 256-port GSM/GPRS SIM module machines, approximately 280 SIM cards from various mobile operators, multiple laptops, 20 smartphones, Tk 6.05 lakh in cash, passports, national ID cards, and a microbus.

The arrested individuals were involved in organised online gambling, cyber fraud, illegal e-transactions and money laundering. They collected MFS agent SIM cards registered in others' names from various areas and used them in GSM gateway devices to process gambling and fraud-related transactions.

The gang operated their own online gambling portals and laundered billions of taka abroad, particularly to China. A case under the Cyber Security Act has been filed at Ramna Police Station.