MAKKAH, 28 September 2007 — In the past three months, a team of Makkah police, led by Col. Muhammad Al-Minshawi, arrested three men, who swindled thousands of riyals from people alleging they were black magicians.
In the first operation, police arrested two men from Cameroon. Both had arrived in the Kingdom on Umrah visas and overstayed. Secret police in Jeddah found out about their illegal activities and monitored them for some time. Eventually a plainclothes police officer was sent to gather further evidence.
“The officer approached them at an apartment in Jeddah. One of the men asked for a large sum of money and claimed he could increase the amount through magic,” said a police spokesman.
“Our officer said he would bring SR500,000. The magician said he could multiply it to SR5 million. The officer managed to convince them that they needed to come to Makkah and that they would get the money there,” said the spokesman.
The magicians arrived in Makkah and were arrested. They were then transferred to the Al-Kakeeya police center for further questioning.
In the second case, Makkah police arrested a Nigerian magician who would target sick women and say he could do supernatural things to cure them.
“Police found SR3,000 in his possession and a phonebook full of names and numbers of women that he had targeted,” said the police spokesman. The man was transferred to the Al-Kakeeya police station for further questioning.
“People should be careful. Most of these black magicians are fraudsters,” said Maj. Abdul Muhsin Al-Mayman of the Makkah police. “If they could make money multiply then they would have done it for themselves instead of demanding money from people.”
