A Senator and two Members of Parliament are among people of interest in a probe into a new fake Sh1 billion gold scam.
This is after ten suspects including a police officer were arrested in an operation on the fake business in Garden City area by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives.
The three first term law makers- one from Rift Valley, another from Nyanza and another one in Nairobi are said to have been part of the deal that has now been burst.
They even tried to make calls to help the release of those arrested on Friday in the operation, police said.
Police say the three youthful males have been mentioned in past fake gold scams which are believed to be the source of part of their finances.
The operation that started last Thursday saved a Tunisia national Sh1 billion that he was about to spend in the purchase of one tonne of fake gold.
DCI Director Amin Mohammed on Friday visited the crime scene at Garden Estate area of Nairobi, where detectives impounded the fake gold and fake dollar notes used by scammers to defraud unsuspecting businessmen in a house converted into a high end office.
The operation led to the arrest of 10 people, including a police officer attached to the DCI offices in Kitui, and who is suspected to be among officers protecting the scammers in the country.
Amin confirmed the probe is ongoing and decried the scammers are still out there despite the operations.
“The operation started all the way in Tunisia when they claimed they have the capacity of selling him gold…when he suspected and reported the matter and we embarked on the hunt,” said DCI Amin.
The targeted victim had arrived in the country last Friday and after almost an hour at a stop with no one to pick him up, he was convinced by a taxi driver that he would be delivered safely to his intended destination.
According to the victim, he was then driven to Ngara area of Nairobi where he stayed incommunicado for a week when he was asked to come to the Garden Estate office.
He was to pay Sh400 million before being allowed to see the gold, and after smelting and verifying a sample, he was meant to pay the remaining Sh600 million, he told police.
Come Thursday September 7 he did not show up alone.
Detectives in the company of the DCI’s tactical team raided the office, arresting 10 people while two others escaped, police said.
Amin said Friday they are determined to deal with the menace.
“This is a huge cartel that likes to drop big names to intimidate officers, and they also operate in a very sophisticated manner,” said Amin.
He said they are pursuing leads on where the gang printed the fake money. The papers were found stashed in metal boxes in one of the rooms there.
“Many victims have lost huge amounts of money. These people were almost making our country particularly Kilimani area the centre of their operations but we are now coming for them,” added Amin.
The scammers set up fully fledged offices, to be used as the addresses to cut multimillion deals.
Others play the roles of different government agents.
“Some pretend to be police officers, others KRA, others even custom officers complete with documentation that we have since discovered are fake documents,” said Amin.
The impounded items including a pistol, phones and loads of metal boxes used to store the fake money and gold were taken to the DCI headquarters as exhibits as the suspects were detained ahead of arraignment.
Police have urged Embassies and High Commissions to advice their nationals coming in for business, Kenya does not hold any huge consignments of gold.
“The gold scam has now reached alarming levels as unsuspecting foreign nationals are being swindled large amounts of money by fraudsters,” said Amin.
According to the officers, Kenyans and foreign nationals must ensure that they conduct due diligence on the person(s) they intend to engage in the gold buying business.
Dozens of foreigners have in the past been arrested in Kenya and deported for being engaged in the fake gold deals.
Some of the Kenyans involved in the deals are also facing various charges.
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