VIDEO: Hushpuppi ‘Stole’ N168 Billion From 1.9 Million Victims – Dubai Police

The police in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), have released a video showing the moment Nigerian internet celebrity, Hushpuppi, was arrested alongside his gang members in the UAE capital for alleged fraud.

The Dubai police, in a post on Instagram, described Hushpuppi, whose real name is Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, as an ‘international online scammer’

According to the Dubai police, their operatives nabbed Hushpuppi and 12 of his gang members during a sting operation codenamed “Fox Hunt 2”.

The police said they carried out six series of midnight raids and arrested the suspects in their sleep at their various Dubai residences.

The police said their team of highly trained operatives monitored the suspects’ social media accounts for over four months and arrived at their whereabouts as well as the alleged fraudulent activities they had been involved in.

Hushpuppi, according to the video, was arrested on multiple fraud charges for crimes he allegedly committed in different parts of the world.

A statement on the Dubai police verified Instagram account said: “In an Operation dubbed #foxhunt2 , Dubai Police have arrested Hushpuppi, Olalekan Jacob Ponle aka “Woodberry”, along with ten members of an African gang, specialised in money laundry, and online fraud.”

The statement quoted Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, the Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, as saying, “the operation is another achievement added to the proud record of Dubai police in ensuring the emirate’s security, safety, as well as preserving people’s money and property. Similar to operation ‘Fox Hunt 1’ that took down an African gang of nine online scammers last February, ‘Fox Hunt 2’ is another painful hit to cybercriminals who try to mess with the world’s security and safety.”

The Dubai police said Hushpuppi and his gang specialised in defrauding unsuspecting online shoppers by creating “fake” social media pages for existing e-commerce websites and redirecting payments made by victims to their own accounts.

Hushpuppi and his team were also charged for hacking corporate emails of companies and sending messages to clients in order to “redirect financial transfers and peoples bank details to their own accounts.”

The Dubai police said Hushpuppi and his gang were responsible for scams amounting to over 1.6 billion Dhirams (about 168 billion naira), being monies they allegedly stole from 1.9 million victims.

Items worth over 150 million Dhirams were recovered from the suspects, including 13 luxury cars, 21 computers, 46 mobile phones, 15 flash drives and 5 hard disks containing data of victims.

Dubai is a city known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene.