Scammers could be extradited

[evanovitch]

Scammers could be extradited
Published: Saturday | April 28, 2012 8 Comments



On account of a new era of cooperation between the local police and their United States counterparts, documents are now being prepared to have some of the lotto scammers arrested in Jamaica extradited to the US to stand trial in that jurisdiction.

"Several of the persons who have been arrested for their involvement in the lotto scam will be extradited to the United States to stand trial," Senior Superintendent Linette Martin-Williams, the former head of St James Police Division, told The Gleaner earlier this year.

Prior to the latest crackdown, scammers seemed to have had the measure of the police, using sophisticated technology to include magic jacks, to keep them off their tracks.

However, they have seemingly run out of options as the new thrust, which includes various police units, takes its toll on them.

"Right now things change … the thing turn down," a young man familiar with the lotto scam told The Gleaner yesterday. "Everybody get nervous."

On Thursday, the police were again at the scammers, conducting raids in several St James, Hanover and Westmoreland communities. Some 17 persons were arrested and several high-end motor vehicles

[evanovitch]

Scared - Scammers selling off assets cheaply



Scared - Scammers selling off assets cheaply
Published: Saturday | April 28, 2012 54 Comments



Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

Under pressure, lotto scammers in western Jamaica are reportedly selling off their expensive assets cheaply in a bid to fall below the radar of the security forces, who have been pursuing them relentlessly in recent months.

"They (the scammers) are in full panic mode at this time," a police source told The Gleaner yesterday. "Some of them are trying to hide their assets while others are selling them off cheaply in a bid to shed their expensive lifestyle ... they are running real scared."

The claim by the lawman has been confirmed by several persons with an intimate knowledge of the illicit scheme, by which unsuspecting American citizens are fleeced of millions of dollars under the guise that they had won a Jamaican lottery and needed to pay a processing fee to collect their winnings.

"Right now, you can get a car that is valued at over $2.5 million for about $1 million," one source said. "They are letting go cars and other valuables like hot bread."

Since last October, the Area One police, who have since teamed up with the Organised Crime Investigation Division, the Mobile Reserve, the Constabulary Financial Unit and the Jamaica Defence Force have been staging targeted raids aimed at breaking the back of the illicit scheme and arresting the persons involved.

In the operations carried out to date, more than 80 persons, primarily from St James, have been arrested and millions of dollars in assets, including high-end vehicles, jewellery, electronic items, seized.