In the past month, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has detained and charged 170 people for similar offenses, and it has successfully achieved the conviction of 23 unlawful Bureau De Change operators and naira racketeers.
During a huge crackdown in Enugu State, the EFCC Special Task Force also detained 116 illegal BDC operators and currency racketeers.
The EFCC seized N110.7 million, $8,368.00, £145.00, €2,725; 900 South African Rand; 32,000.00 CFA; 100 Turkiya; and 500 Bank Mozambique currency during the Enugu crackdown.
The EFCC also disclosed that the International Criminal Police Organization, the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, the governments of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, and Kenya, are providing support for the extradition of Nadeem Anjarwalla, an executive of Binance Holding Limited, in connection with an ongoing investigation into allegations of $35,400,000 in money laundering.
Our correspondent was able to receive an EFCC document named "EFCC Alert," which included details about the incident and was approved by the commission's chairman, Ola Olukoyede, on Tuesday.
The memo further disclosed that since its establishment on February 7, 2024, the EFCC Special Task Force had taken decisive action and produced remarkable outcomes.
Olukoyede said the arrests and convictions were a testament to the hard work of the EFCC.
He said, "It is a testament to hard work and dedication that the EFCC has secured 23 convictions for the offense of currency racketeering and operation of illegal BDCs with the help of the Special Task Force in less than a month."
"Thirteen of the convictions were in Kano alone; the remaining five were in Lagos, one in Port Harcourt, three in Kaduna, and three in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State.
"One hundred and seventy suspects, dispersed among just eight zonal offices in Kano, Ibadan, Enugu, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Uyo, and Maiduguri, are currently facing prosecution for the same offenses."
He went on to say that 116 individuals were arrested by EFCC agents during a sting operation.
These suspects included street vendors running illicit foreign exchange markets, currency speculators, and illegal Bureau de Change operators.
The document also stated that:
"Among the 116 people apprehended in Enugu during a sting operation, which included a combination of illicit bureau de change operators, currency speculators, and street vendors operating illicit foreign exchange markets, the following goods were recovered: N110, 700,000.00, $8,368.00, £145.00, €2,725; 900 South African Rand; 32,000.00 CFA; 100 Turkiya; and 500 Bank Mozambique currencies in various denominations, as well as an abandoned safe by currency street vendors.
"A number of the accused are foreign nationals from nearby nations.
It is heartbreaking that although naira mutilation and selling are illegal in the nation, service fee and price denominations and pricing expressed in currencies other than the naira were not strictly enforced until the EFCC under Olukoyede took up the cause.
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