Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested a 7-man fraud syndicate based in Lagos.

This was announced in a statement by the RRS on Sunday.

According to the statement, the  syndicate led by 45-year-old Osita Nwafor were arrested based on the intelligence received on their activities.

Other members of the gang include; Nwogu Joseph Chika (36), Anthony Odama (43), Ikechukwu Nkem (32), James Okonkwo (51), Adedio Paulinus (29) and Ogundepo Olufemi (51).

The statement reads: “RRS had last week botched the transfer of N25 million from a locally based bank account and a $220,000 from an international account by the gang.

“The suspects confirmed to investigators that they also work with bank insiders locally and internationally.

“Speaking after his arrest, Nwafor said “although I brought the team together, each and every member of the group has his own specialization in the group. We sourced for cases and each and every member of the has his own role on each of the cases.

“Once I have done my own part of the deal (sourcing for SIMs and accounts numbers through which the group perpetrates its fraud), I push it to whoever among the member has to play the next role and that is how we treat our cases.

“Apart from this, each member of the gang also has his own splinter group. Whenever they have personal jobs, they also handle on their own.

“Chike (Nwogu) sourced for foreign and local accounts for money lodgments. I don’t know anything about how he does that, I simply hand over to Chike. He has his connections and they work on percentage.

“Once they agree on the percentage, when the money comes, everybody gets his own cuts”.

“According to sources, police investigations revealed that the fraudsters scout for obituaries of well to do members of the public, use bank insiders to determine the deceased account balance, clone their SIM cards for online transfer.

“It was learnt that one of the bank insiders was arrested in Lagos while another one based in Benin is on the run after suspecting the gang has been busted and that police are on his trail.

“Nwafor disclosed that Nwogu was working on the transfer of $220,000 fresh transaction from a foreign bank (bank name, account holder and parties withheld) before he was arrested.

“Another member of the syndicate, Femi Ogundepo, it was revealed, was also working on a fraudulent transaction of N25 million from an old generation bank with an insider connivance (details of the deal withheld).

“James Okonkwo, a close ally of Nwafor, the gang coordinator, it was disclosed allegedly cornered N8 million fraudulent proceed of the gang shortly before his arrest.

” This, it was learnt, was the cause of a serious dispute between Nwafor and Okonkwo, who just came back from the village”.

The Police disclosed that all the suspects have been transferred to the SARS for further investigations and prosecution.