The General Directorate of Internal Security Forces announced that "on 5-7-2023, citizen A. M. (born in 1966) reported to unknown individuals for fraud after handing him a counterfeit amount of $50,000 in the Nabatieh governorate." It stated that "on 2-8-2023, citizen B. Sh. (born in 1945) was also subjected to fraud after receiving, in the same manner, a counterfeit amount of $50,000."
The directorate followed up to uncover the perpetrators, revealing that an international network was executing these operations by having one of its members agree with expatriates located outside Lebanese territories and deceive them into believing he could transfer their money and deliver it to their families in Lebanon without any fee. He directly received the cash from the expatriate outside of Lebanon while his partners in Lebanon delivered the equivalent amount to the expatriate's family using counterfeit banknotes after counting them with a "money counting machine" that the gang members brought with them during the delivery to convince the victim that the amount was legitimate.
Following this, the Information Branch intensified its investigative and technical efforts, successfully identifying the members of the network, including: A. A. (born in 1971, Lebanese) and W. B. (born in 1988, Lebanese). Consequently, orders were issued to locate and arrest them. The special forces in the Information Branch managed to apprehend them in the southern suburbs on dates 14 and 16-8-2023.
During the investigation, they admitted that they, along with others, formed an international fraud network that executed several fraudulent operations involving counterfeit amounts ranging from $30,000 to $100,000. The first individual received the counterfeit money from another network member in the suburbs and transported it to the designated location to hand it over to the victim in cooperation with one of the girls from the network, where the amount was counted in front of the victim using a "modified counting machine" that does not detect counterfeit banknotes.
Furthermore, the second individual acknowledged providing vehicles for executing the operations and receiving money transfers through an illegal money transfer office in the Salim Salam area of Beirut.
The directorate announced that on 18-8-2023, it had raided the illegal money transfer office in the Salim Salam area and arrested M. Sh. (born in 1958, Lebanese), seizing the funds present in the office ($219,120, €5,000, and 170,858,000 Lebanese pounds). Upon investigating the latter, he admitted to the charges concerning conducting illegal money transfers through his illegal office, which was sealed with red wax.
Legal procedures were taken against the arrested individuals, and they were referred to the relevant authorities based on the judicial authority's directive, while efforts continue to apprehend the remaining implicated parties.
