JEDDAH, 23 April — A gang of swindlers who cheated a soldier out of hundreds of thousands of dollars has been arrested by the local police.
The gang of African nationals used to trick people into changing their riyals into counterfeit dollars, which the gang had smuggled into the Kingdom in huge amounts during the last Haj season.
The police team started an investigation after a sergeant in the army complained that the gang had cheated him out of a substantial sum of money by offering him millions of dollars at a highly profitable exchange rate. He bought $300,000 at a location on Hera Street in north Jeddah.
Later, while counting the money at home, he found that most of the dollar bills were in fact forged.
The soldier identified a number of the gang members when investigating officials showed him photographs of previously convicted criminals.
