US authorities arrest Nigerian, Maltan over cybercrime

Prince Onyeoziri Odinakachi, Nigerian and Daniel Meli from Malta, have been arrested and charged in an indictment filed in Boston and Atlanta, United States, with conspiracy to commit multiple computer intrusion offenses. Odinakachi and Meli are 31 and 27 years respectively.

The authorities said they had seized websites used to sell cybercriminals malware called "Warzone RAT" that could be used to steal data from victims' computers.

The indictment alleged that from June 2019 to March 2023, Odinakachi provided online customer support to users of the Warzone RAT malware.

An indictment filed in federal court in Atlanta also charged Daniel Meli, 27, of Zabbar, Malta with causing unauthorized damage to protected computers and other cyber-related offenses.

Prosecutors said since 2012, he had sold malware products like the Warzone RAT through online computer-hacking forums and offered teaching tools, including an eBook, for sale. The U.S. government is seeking his extradition.

Defense lawyers for Meli and Odinakachi could not be immediately identified.

Federal prosecutors in Boston said law enforcement had taken down four domains that together offered to sell malware, which allowed cybercriminals to secretly connect to peoples' computers for malicious purposes.

The malware, a so-called remote access trojan, allowed hackers to browse file systems, take screenshots, obtain a victim's user names and passwords, record keystrokes and watch computer users through their web cameras, prosecutors said.

Jodi Cohen, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Boston office, called it sophisticated malware that was used to infect computers globally.