Three Chinese nationals arrested in Bloemfontein’s Woodland Hills Wildlife Estate are allegedly part of a sophisticated cyber cartel operating in South Africa.
They are Liang Chen (34), Ming Di Chen (52) and Juan Chen (38).
The trio are part of a group of 48 suspects arrested thus far in different parts of the country for their apparent involvement in a major sim card fraud operation in Gauteng and the Free State. The police nailed 45 of these suspects in Johannesburg.
The Chens are reportedly three of the six Chinese nationals, believed to be the kingpins of the operation, in the group of 48 busted over two weeks in Bloemfontein and Johannesburg. Two are South African, while the rest are said to be foreign nationals; some of whom are apparently in the country illegally.
The Chens were granted bail of R50 000 each during their appearance in the Bloemfontein Magistrates’ Court on 9 July, following their arrest six days earlier.
They were busted by a multi-faceted team comprising different police units, government departments, private security and forensic investigators.
The Chens are expected to reappear in court on 8 August, while the Hawks continue with their investigation regarding their involvement in the sim card cartel. Probing entails how the suspects managed to illegally obtained more than two million sim cards.
These were from multiple service providers.
Col. Zweli Mohobeleli, provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, said the incriminating evidence already found included machines and numerous sim cards.
“Sim cards of different service providers, to the estimated value of more than R1 million, suspected cloning machines, cash, two firearms, and rounds of ammunition were amongst items recovered at the two houses the suspects were arrested at,” said Mohobeleli.
He said the team of investigators reacted to reliable information received about two houses in the Woodland Hills Wildlife Estate, where the three suspects were using unknown machines to clone data and manufacture sim cards.
“A search and seizure operation, duly authorised by the court, was conducted,” said Mohobeleli.
According to the Communication Risk Information Centre (COMRiC), the confiscated devices are used to send bulk sms messages.
