Police arrest crime boss who headed online fraud network netting € 18 mln

Cyprus police said on Thursday it helped dismantle an international cartel by arresting a crime boss living in Larnaca said to have spearheaded an online fraud network that scammed ?18 mln.

Nicosia was part of an international operation codenamed ‘ Warenagent’ that involved EUROPOL and EUROJUST in nine European countries and concluded with the arrest in Cyprus of the head of the cartel.

Soon after the 35-year-old cartel boss was arrested, another 14 people were detained in eight different countries. All the arrests took place in June.

EUROPOL commended the Cyprus Police for its “substantial contribution to the dismantling of the cartel” while arrests were made in Latvia, Finland, the UK, Estonia, Lithuania, Switzerland and Ukraine.

“This success coincides with the forthcoming visit of Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle to Cyprus and her meeting Friday with Chief of Police Zacharias Chrysostomou,” a Cyprus police statement said.

Preparing for operation ‘Warenagent’ took six years and began in 2012 in Germany. During that period Police services from a number of European countries set up a joint investigation team at EUROPOL’s offices in The Hague.

The investigation team tracked down the 35-year-old alleged brain of the cartel in Cyprus, who is a permanent resident in Larnaca.

He was arrested on 12 June at his home after a coordinated operation by the Cyprus Police, based on a European Arrest Warrant issued against him.

The information gathered, alongside frequent information exchange and analysis by Europol, led the investigators to identify and locate the key target in Cyprus, Europol said.

Last month some 31 house searches were carried out in Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK.

Since 2012 more than 35 000 cases of online fraud have been detected. In all cases, high-quality goods were ordered from various mail order companies with fraudulently obtained credit card data through a network of merchandise agents.

The recipients of these goods, known as package mules, were mostly recruited in Germany.

After receiving the illegally obtained goods, the package mules were asked to send the packages to new addresses, primarily in Eastern Europe.

These schemes are often disguised as legitimate job opportunities and the mules may receive a commission for their service. They were used as intermediaries and played a crucial role in online payment fraud as criminal networks gain access to the stolen goods or funds without revealing their identity.

All the perpetrators used codenames and encrypted access in the network.

Settling payments was carried out with the help of cryptocurrencies, which also played a major role in the investigation. Other criminals were responsible for providing IT infrastructure, recruiting package mules, coordinating activity and laundering money.

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