Saudi Gazette
RIYADH – Police in Riyadh aborted a major financial fraud involving SR40 million when they arrested a five-member gang in a villa west of Riyadh.
The gang was comprised of three Saudis, a Yemeni and an Eritrean.
The men were apprehended in a raid on a residential villa west of Riyadh with loads of money kept in four cardboard boxes.
The four boxes supposedly contained SR40 million, but police discovered that they actually had only SR12,000, which was distributed on top of bundles of cardboard pieces, which were kept in the same way cash is bundled in banks.
Police said they received a lead to the fraudulent operation during a raid within the ongoing security sweep against illegal expatriates.
They said the five men had plotted to purchase counterfeit dollar bills from someone by offering the boxes purportedly containing SR40 million.
The security services prepared a plan to monitor the developments and implanted secret sources to infiltrate the gang to determine the time and location of the meeting of the parties, which turned out to be a residential villa located west of Riyadh.
