The Cyber Centre of Excellence has busted a massive cybercrime and money-laundering network involving transactions worth more than Rs 631.86 crore and arrested 13 accused from different parts of Gujarat under Operation Mule Hunt 2.0. The accused were allegedly operating a sophisticated racket by opening mule bank accounts in the names of various firms across banks, depositing cyber fraud money into those accounts and later converting the funds into cash before routing them to cyber mafia networks through Angadia channels.

The Cyber Centre of Excellence team registered four separate offences over the last four days and subsequently arrested all 13 accused from Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Bharuch and Rajkot. During the investigation, police scrutinised details of 45 bank accounts linked to the accused on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP). The probe revealed that 982 cyber fraud complaints from across India were connected to accounts operated by the gang. Investigators said the accused systematically created and operated fraudulent bank accounts in the names of firms and shell entities to receive money siphoned off through various cyber frauds. Once the funds were deposited, the money was allegedly withdrawn or transferred through informal cash courier networks to handlers associated with organised cyber crime syndicates. During the operation, police seized 28 mobile phones, 39 cheque books, among other things, allegedly used in the fraud operations.