The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrimes Centre (NPF-NCCC) has arrested seven suspects over alleged money laundering, business email compromise, sextortion, blackmail, romance scams and other internet-related offences.

Akaninyene Ezima, Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of the centre, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said one of the suspects was arrested following a request from Germany’s Federal Police, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), to preserve data linked to an IP address allegedly used in a sophisticated business email compromise operation.

The investigation, codenamed “Operation Broken Mask”, was conducted in collaboration with the BKA and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) under the Budapest Convention 24/7 Network.

According to Ezima, the suspect was arrested on July 20 at his residence in Megamound Estate, Lekki, Lagos, after investigators linked him to the alleged scheme.

A forensic examination of devices recovered from the residence reportedly uncovered more than 12.5 million email logs belonging to victims in over 50 countries.

The police said the suspect’s Bank Verification Number (BVN) was linked to accounts with six financial institutions and fintech platforms, while a Mercedes-Benz AMG GLC 43 allegedly acquired with proceeds of crime was also recovered.

Ezima said the suspect allegedly used phishing kits sourced through Telegram to compromise Microsoft 365 credentials belonging to employees of targeted companies and reportedly made more than N100 million from the operation.

The police also arrested the owner of a technology company over alleged international cyber-enabled investment fraud and money laundering.

Ezima said the investigation followed a petition alleging that Elizabeth and Prince Iruaregbon lost N56.3 million after being induced to invest in a WhatsApp-based stock trading platform that promised high returns.

Investigators allegedly traced the funds to accounts operated by entities linked to the suspected syndicate.

The AIG said the suspect’s technology company allegedly served as a channel for converting proceeds of the fraud, with its account at Save Heaven Microfinance Bank recording terminal cash-out inflows and outflows totalling N3.2 billion between October 30, 2025, and May 31, 2026.

He added that investigators traced about N3.6 billion in suspected proceeds of crime that were allegedly converted into Tether (USDT) stablecoins through Bybit peer-to-peer transactions.

The suspect was arrested on August 13 in Agiliti, Lagos, and allegedly admitted to owning Kestart Technology and engaging in peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading on Bybit.

In a separate case, two suspects were arrested in Anambra over alleged conspiracy, identity theft, impersonation and computer-related fraud.

Ezima said the investigation followed a complaint by Faruk Yabo, Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, who reported that an individual was impersonating him on WhatsApp and Facebook.

The suspects were arrested on August 4 following technical intelligence and other investigative activities.

Police reportedly recovered 24 registered and 33 unregistered MTN SIM cards, 26 registered and 18 unregistered Airtel SIM cards, as well as an MTN toolkit.

One of the suspects allegedly admitted to buying and selling registered and unregistered SIM cards and creating a social media account in the identity of a United Kingdom citizen, which was allegedly used to defraud victims in India.