Gujarat police arrested 13 individuals this week in a crackdown on a cyber-mule network used to launder fraud proceeds [1].
The operation targets the infrastructure of digital financial crime, where "mules" provide bank accounts to move stolen money and obscure the trail for primary scammers.
Under the initiative titled Operation Mule Hunt 2.0, investigators conducted raids in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, and Rajkot [1]. Some reports also include Bharuch as a site of police activity [2]. The arrests follow a large-scale effort to dismantle the network and prevent the further laundering of illicit funds [1].
Authorities linked the network to a significant volume of financial crime. Investigators identified 982 cyber-crime complaints connected to the operation [2]. The total value of the alleged fraud is estimated between ₹631 crore [2] and ₹632 crore [1].
Cyber-mule networks typically operate by recruiting individuals to open bank accounts or use their existing credentials to receive and transfer funds. This process allows the organizers of the fraud to distance themselves from the initial theft, making it harder for law enforcement to trace the money back to the primary suspects.
The Gujarat police said the arrests are part of a broader strategy to secure the digital financial ecosystem. By removing the accounts used for these transfers, the police aim to disrupt the cash-out phase of cyber scams, which is critical for the profitability of these criminal enterprises [1].
“Gujarat police arrested 13 individuals this week in a crackdown on a cyber-mule network”
The scale of Operation Mule Hunt 2.0 highlights the increasing reliance of cybercriminals on distributed networks of financial intermediaries to bypass anti-money laundering controls. By focusing on the 'mules' rather than just the end-users of the stolen funds, Indian authorities are attempting to break the financial pipeline that makes large-scale digital fraud sustainable.
