KINGSTON, Jamaica – Twelve people were this morning arrested during simultaneous lottery scamming operations conducted in St James and the Kingston Eastern Division.

The predawn operations were conducted by the Financial Investigations Division (FID) and police personnel, a release from the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Corporate Communications Unit said Wednesday.

The operations, which were centred on people suspected to be involved in lottery scamming and other financial crimes, lasted more than six hours, and are part of an ongoing investigation into a case of lottery scamming, in which a United States resident was defrauded of more than US$300,000 by people in Jamaica.

Four people were taken into custody in relation to the lottery scamming probe, and lottery scamming paraphernalia, including lead sheets, were seized. An additional eight people were arrested in connection with the seizure of a homemade firearm at one of the premises. 

The suspects will be interviewed in their attorneys’ presence, following which formal charges will be laid. 

Robin Sykes, chief technical director of FID said, “This operation is just one of a number that we will be carrying out in the coming weeks in relation to investigations being conducted by FID and its partners in other law enforcement agencies.

“The scale of this case is not unusual in our experience. People in the United States and other countries continue to be targeted by criminals in Jamaica; they are often elderly and vulnerable,” Sykes said. “The criminal spends long periods of time persuading these victims that they are the winners of a non-existent lottery or a sweepstake and that they need to send monies in order to pay taxes and administration fees.”

He also stated that he is not surprised to find firearms associated with this type of criminal lifestyle.

The release said the FID remains committed to the investigation of such offences and will not restrict its focus to those people who defraud the victim, but will seek to bring to justice those people who assist the offender by receiving the payments and laundering their proceeds of crime.