LTTE credit card racket, an international operation

COLOMBO:Wide publicity was given by the British Media to a large scale credit card fraud by the LTTE in the UK where a large number of British citizens have been victims.

This racket by the LTTE is not confined to the UK but is a large scale international operation.

This operation by the LTTE has been going on for a long period of time and came to light due to the efforts of the operatives of the Sri Lankan state intelligence.

On a tip off by a Sri Lankan officer, Singapore authorities arrested six Sri Lankan Tamil nationals trying to fraudulently obtain money from ATMs’ in Singapore during the latter part of last year, Four of those arrested were from UK. All six were convicted, states the President’s Media Division in a press release.

Alarmed by this development, the LTTE immediately shifted their operations to Thailand. One Sundaram, a native of Mullaitivu, one of the masterminds behind this fraud arrived in Bangkok in November 2006 and together with Sivam, a LTTE operative in Bangkok started their activities in Bangkok.

But once again on information from Sri Lankan authorities, the Thai police arrested the group including Sundaram who was from UK together with 1.6 million Thai bhat a laptop containing pin numbers of a large numbers of credit cards.

Three people arrested by Thai Police are still under detention. However Sivam managed to escape and went underground. Following this, the Tai Police and Immigration authorities raided a number of places where Sri Lankan Tamils were living and a number of them were arrested.

On investigation, the Thai Police found that the credit cards used to withdraw money from ATMs’ in Thailand were mostly of British people. This information was promptly conveyed to the UK authorities.

In the meantime, in December 2006, in Chonburi Province, Thailand, police arrested another four Tamils with 6.5 millions Thai bhat, 350 activated ATM cards and 26000 blank cards, a laptop, a scanner.

This was followed by another arrest of three more Sri Lankan Tamils, this time in Phukket, along with 140 activated credit cards, 22000 blank cards, and a laptop with a number of pin numbers, a scanner and a pen drive containing about 5000 pin numbers.

Among the arrested was on Sivagnanam. Who was a resident in London owning two companies involved in house and property sales.

He has used these complains to negotiate the purchase of filling stations by the LTTE activists.

With these developments. LTTE leadership removed Sivan as the LTTE coordinator in Thailand and is now trying to shift their operations to Malaysia.

For the first time, Sri Lankan officials working closely with Thai Officials managed to bust up major LTTE activities that have been going on in Thailand for a long time.

Thai authorities are now closely monitoring LTTE activities in Thailand. Meanwhile the Sri Lankan High Commission in London was kept fully briefed on these developments and due to this the High Commission has been able to expose the large scale credit card racket by LTTE in UK.