Jamaica police arrest 20 suspected scam artists in racket targeting mostly elderly Americans

Published January 08, 2015

Police in Jamaica have arrested 20 people suspected of involvement in a multimillion-dollar lottery scam.

The arrests are the latest in an ongoing police crackdown against Jamaican scam artists who target mostly elderly Americans, cheating them out of their savings by claiming they won an international lottery and demanding payment to cover taxes.

Police corporal Kevin Watson says the group was arrested in Hanover parish, a rural region west of the capital of Kingston. He said authorities seized laptops, documents and one firearm following Friday's arrests.

The Jamaican and US government set up a task force in 2009 to fight the lottery racket, believed to generate at least $300 million a year.

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