POLICE Commissioner, David Manning, has announced that two foreign crime gang members have been arrested after being involved in data espionage, fraud and financial crime in Papua New Guinea.
The two men, carrying passports from Romania in Europe, are now under arrest after being apprehended on the 21st of January in Port Moresby.
“International criminals cross borders and use technology to exploit vulnerabilities in our communities. The victims of these crimes are hardworking Papua New Guineans,” Commissioner Manning said.
“The RPNGC Transnational Crime Unit tracked the activities of this criminal enterprise and built our case for their arrest.
“The two men are aged 40 and 26 respectively. Thanks to the hard work of our Investigators, we secure more than enough evidence to ensure these criminals can expect extended prison terms in PNG.
“As the matter is now before the court there is limited information that can be released other than to say the matter allegedly involves the use of credit and debit card skimming devices, the cloning of cards and the theft of significand sums of money.
“The alleged amount of misappropriated money is in excess of 10 million Kina, and we have begun the complex work of tracking down every toea of this stolen money.
“The two criminals were arrested in Kennedy Estate in NCD after being identified by police through CCTV footage.
“In the process of the arrest, police seized a number of items including passports, cash, card skimming and cloning devices, blank and reprogrammed cards and a computer.”
Commissioner Manning said international organised crime networks have become a major challenge for law enforcement agencies around the world, and PNG was no exception.
“These are organised criminals exploit technology and travel, engage with domestic criminals and abuse the hospitality of communities.
“The money that was stolen by these criminals came from the accounts of hard working Papua New Guineans, and these criminals will now be held to account for their victimisation of our citizens.
“This is a solid example of the diligent work of our Investigators. We remain vigilant against the threat of transnational criminal syndicates – Those who seek to enter our country and steal from our people will find there is no place to hide. These criminals will do hard time in our prisons”.
