‘Boxer’ arrest: How FBI, Delhi Police coordinated on Operation Mexico
Senior police officers involved with the operation, code named Operation Mexico, to nab and bring Boxer back to India said that even though the FBI was not directly involved, it played a vital role in the arrest and immediate deportation of the gangster to India from Cancun, Mexico
In December last year, officials of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sought Delhi Police’s help in catching cyber criminals who were frequently defrauding American people, especially senior citizens, on the pretext of providing them technology support for their “malfunctioning” computers. The FBI approached the Delhi Police through the Interpol wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with details of cyber criminals who were operating call centres in Delhi and adjoining areas to defraud senior citizens in the US.
In a joint operation involving Delhi Police, FBI and the Canadian law enforcement agencies, three suspects were nabbed in Delhi, blowing the lid off a trans-continental scam.
The FBI and the Delhi Police collaborated once again in March when the US agency was informed about notorious Delhi gangster Deepak Pahal alias Boxer escaping to Mexico.
Senior police officers involved with the operation, codenamed Operation Mexico, to nab and bring Boxer back to India said that even though the FBI was not directly involved, it played a vital role in the arrest and immediate deportation of the gangster to India from Cancun, Mexico.
The officers said the US federal agency coordinated with the Mexican immigration and police agencies and ensured that Boxer was caught in their country and handed over to the two-member Delhi Police special cell team that reached Cancun to secure his deportation, the officers said.
The described it as a reciprocal gesture between the two law enforcement agencies, with the US agency returning the favour for the help that the Delhi Police extended in busting the tech support scam.
{{/usCountry}}The described it as a reciprocal gesture between the two law enforcement agencies, with the US agency returning the favour for the help that the Delhi Police extended in busting the tech support scam.
{{/usCountry}}“The FBI has a stronghold in its neighbouring countries. We had also taken Interpol’s help. Information about Boxer’s criminal antecedents, including his fingerprints, and details of the fake passport he was using, were shared with the FBI and the Interpol. A red notice was issued against Boxer through the Interpol,” said a senior Special Cell officer involved in Operation Mexico.
{{/usCountry}}“The FBI has a stronghold in its neighbouring countries. We had also taken Interpol’s help. Information about Boxer’s criminal antecedents, including his fingerprints, and details of the fake passport he was using, were shared with the FBI and the Interpol. A red notice was issued against Boxer through the Interpol,” said a senior Special Cell officer involved in Operation Mexico.
{{/usCountry}}“When Boxer reached Mexico in second week of March, the Special Cell team that was already working on his fake passport case confirmed his presence in the country through electronic surveillance and monitoring of his social media accounts. The FBI and the Interpol were informed about his arrival in Mexico and corroborating electronic evidence confirming his presence were also shared with the agencies,” the officer said asking not to be named.
{{/usCountry}}“When Boxer reached Mexico in second week of March, the Special Cell team that was already working on his fake passport case confirmed his presence in the country through electronic surveillance and monitoring of his social media accounts. The FBI and the Interpol were informed about his arrival in Mexico and corroborating electronic evidence confirming his presence were also shared with the agencies,” the officer said asking not to be named.
{{/usCountry}}The agencies started looking for Boxer and a human trafficking agent who was helping him stay in Mexico. The agent was also going to facilitate Boxer’s travel to the US, the officer said.
“The fugitive gangster, however, got the whiff of action by the Indian and foreign agencies. He left his passport with the agent and went to a domestic airport in Cancun to board a flight for another Mexican city. However, Mexico’s immigration officials identified him at the airport and took him into a detention centre as he failed to produce his passport and domicile documents,” said the officer.
“Through the Interpol and the FBI, the Special Cell team was informed about Boxer’s detention. Immediately, the two-member Special Cell’s team was sent to Mexico. They reached there and secured Boxer’s deportation. The FBI played a key role in the immediate return of the team with Boxer. One of its officers accompanied the team in the flight,” the officer added.
The tech support scam
Officers in the Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police said that more than 20,000 US citizens had been targeted by a gang of cyber cheats who would send pop-up ads about some alleged issue with the user’s operating system, the officials said.
Most of their targets were senior citizens who were not tech-savvy, the officials said. “On contacting a designated number, the target was convinced to pay a certain amount of money to fix the so-called technical glitch by taking over the control of the computer of the victim through voluntarily-shared code of any RDP (remote desktop programme) like AnyDesk or LogMeIn,” the officials added.
After the FBI approached the Delhi Police, investigators tracked illegal call centres that were being used to run the scam. “On December 14 and 15, three suspects, identified as Jatin Lamba, Harshad Madaan and Vikas Gupta, were arrested in Delhi by the city police, in a joint operation with law enforcement agencies from the United States and Canada,” the official said.
“Their associate Jayant Bhatia was arrested in Toronto by authorities in Canada, while Kulwinder Singh, the fifth accused, was arrested by the FBI from New Jersey in the US,” he added.
Synergy in operations
On December 16, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey issued a statement on its website in which it “thanked the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs, the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation, and the Delhi Police for their assistance.”
“The coordinated efforts that led to the arrest of the cyber criminals opened doors for future correspondence between the Delhi Police and the FBI over sharing information about crimes and criminals in their respective countries. The FBI has its four agents in Delhi. In the recent past and through the US embassy, the Delhi Police had meetings with them and such information were exchanged. Both the agencies are working on the provided information,” a senior police officer, who attended the meetings, said, requesting anonymity.
Another police officer, associated with the IFSO’s December operation, said that as of now nearly ₹90 lakh of the money cheated from the US citizens have been recovered from the arrested people and the concerned Delhi court was informed about the same.
“The arrested men are still in India. The US’s law enforcement agency may seek their custody if they need them. We are looking for options through which the recovered amount can be given back to the respective victims in the US,” the officer said.
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