NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday filed a charge sheet against five members of a human trafficking syndicate accused of sending Indian nationals to Laos to work in cybercrime sweatshops run by Chinese scammers.
These scams were primarily targeting European and American citizens.
The move comes on the same day that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Laos to attend the India-ASEAN and East Asia summits.
Officials confirmed that the charge sheet was submitted before a special court on Wednesday, naming five individuals involved in the syndicate.
The accused, Manjoor Alam alias Guddu, Sahil, Ashish alias Akhil, Pawan Yadav alias Afzal alias Afroz, and the key conspirator, Kamran Haider alias Zaidi, were allegedly running the operation through a Delhi-based consultancy firm.
“NIA investigations have revealed that all five were involved in trafficking vulnerable Indian youth to the Golden Triangle Region in Lao PDR, where they were forced to commit cyber scams targeting European and American citizens. They operated through the consultancy firm, Ali International Services, which functioned as a front for human trafficking,” said a senior agency official.
The NIA further uncovered that Zaidi facilitated the entire operation, extorting money through cryptocurrency wallets from victims who attempted to escape the Chinese scammers’ grip.
“Pawan Yadav bypassed the other middle agents to supply trafficked persons for jobs directly to his control. He then employed them in Chinese companies involved in creating fake Facebook profiles and chatting with individuals from the USA and Europe, convincing them to invest in cryptocurrency apps as part of the cyber scam,” the NIA alleged in its charge sheet.
According to the NIA, its investigation revealed a well-organised network of traffickers and touts involved in various illegal activities, ranging from the operation of unlicensed manpower supply agencies to the illegal transfer of potential victims for criminal activities in Southeast Asia.
The accused were allegedly responsible for arranging flight tickets, documents, and illegal border crossings, facilitated through contacts in the Golden Triangle Region.