Police have arrested 21 foreign nationals suspected of running online financial fraud from a building in the Maradana area of Colombo, in a joint raid with the Criminal Investigation Department and the Department of Immigration and Emigration.
The operation targeted a three-storey building at Maradana Technical Junction, where the group is alleged to have conducted online financial fraud and other illegal internet-based activity from Sri Lankan soil, the Daily Mirror reported. Officers from the Police Central Crime Investigation Bureau, the CID and Immigration and Emigration took part.
Those detained are 12 Chinese nationals, six Bangladeshi nationals and three Indian nationals, a breakdown both newsrooms give identically.
Hiru News reported that the suspects were also found to be staying in the country unlawfully, without passports — the detail that explains the Immigration Department’s presence on the raid.
What the filings do not say
Neither report identifies the victims of the alleged fraud, or whether they were in Sri Lanka or overseas. Neither states the sum of money said to be involved, how long the operation is alleged to have run, what equipment was recovered, or whether the suspects have been produced before a court. No Sri Lankan national has been named as arrested, and neither filing says whether the building’s owner or landlord is under investigation.
The two accounts differ only in emphasis. The Daily Mirror describes the premises and the agencies involved; Hiru carries the immigration status. They agree on the location, the number held and the nationalities.
