Police authorities in Sao Paulo, Brazil have announced the arrest of over 60 Nigerians in a raid of suspected cybercriminals in the Latin American country.
The Chief Detective magazine gathered that the internationally-coordinated raid tagged Operation Golpe De Amor (Operation Love Scam) was spearheaded by the cyber-crime police division of the state of Sao Paulo.
According to the authorities Romance Scam has been the Channels and the mode of operation of Brazil-based Nigerian fraudsters also known as Yahoo scammers.
Considered as one of the most sophisticated and historic arrests in the annals of Police investigations against the Nigerian Yahoo Boys in Brazil, the Head of the Police Operation, Police Chief (Dr.) Ferraz Fonts, said on National Television that several reports from victims and the extravagant lives of the Yahoo Boys in Brazil called for the mega arrest that took over a year.
Fonts described a prime suspect identified as Chibuike Offor aka Chiboy as a Brazil-based Nigerian Yahoo megastar and the ring leader of the criminal gang operating from the outskirts of the state of Sao Paulo.
According to the police, many suspects are on the run.
Fonts said that the victims, who were mostly women, were scammed of several millions of dollars after being lured into fake love affairs through internet love sites.
The operation which commenced earlier this week led to the arrest of over 210 suspected scammers, the confiscation of several millions of dollars retrieved from the scammers, hundreds of sophisticated cars, hundreds and thousands of wristwatches, and several houses confiscated in Brazil and abroad.
According to the Police Chief, the Nigerian Yahoo Boys are also owners of several investments in Brazil that are used for money laundering.
Police authorities in Sao Paulo have announced that the arrest of the suspected Nigerian criminals in Brazil will not tarnish the credibility of the law-abiding Nigerians.
The Chief Detective learnt that the operation was carried out with the support of the Nigeria Police Investigative Department against Cyber-crimes.
Font said that most of the so-called Yahoo Boys in police net were the new generation of Nigerians in Brazil.
Insisting that all those arrested would face Justice, Font added that the law-abiding ones are welcome in Brazil.
