Police raid strip golf equipment and arrest gang accused of drugging and defrauding shoppers

Police raided greater than 100 strip golf equipment in Polish cities on the weekend, leading to 22 arrests. These detained face a complete of 400 costs, together with of being a part of an organised crime gang that drugged and defrauded as much as a number of thousand shoppers, together with one who misplaced one million zloty (€218,200).

Round 1 / 4 of the venues functioned till 2014 as a part of the Cocomo chain, a infamous string of strip golf equipment that was closed following rising stories of scams through which shoppers – lots of them international guests to Poland – misplaced giant sums of cash after apparently being drugged.

The individuals arrested are suspected of “collaborating in an organised crime group whose members performed fraud and theft on shoppers of go-go golf equipment”, with three of them suspected of main the gang and of cash laundering, mentioned Iwona Jurkiewicz of the Central Bureau of Investigation, quoted by TVN.

Prosecutors say that the group labored by providing patrons drinks containing psychoactive substances after which profiting from their incapacity to make sound choices by, for instance, charging greater quantities at fee terminals or acquiring repeated funds.

As many as a number of thousand clients could have been affected, who every misplaced between just a few thousand and one million zloty, Jurkiewicz added. Some had each day spending limits modified and even loans taken out on their cellphones, with the cash then being spent within the membership within the subsequent few hours.

The group operated at 22 golf equipment in Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Sopot, Lublin, Rzeszów, Łódź, Katowice, Bydgoszcz and Zakopane, mentioned Jurkiewicz. Additionally it is accused of partaking in actions designed to disguise the origin of illegally obtained funds.

The raids, ordered by the nationwide public prosecutor’s workplace, adopted a prolonged investigation and concerned round 500 officers. Police uncovered a headquarters functioning in Kraków, from which dozens of golf equipment have been coordinated and CCTV photographs from across the nation have been recorded.

Officers secured eight servers, pc tools and greater than 4,000 discs containing CCTV footage in addition to accounting documentation. In addition they confiscated objects amounting to 1.2 million zloty (€262,000) within the type of cash in numerous currencies, three vehicles, luxurious watches and gold jewelry.

All however three of these detained have been positioned in short-term detention. If convicted, they resist 12 years imprisonment.

Major picture credit score: Kamila Kubat / Agencja Gazeta