The gang which the detectives stated had been on their radar in the past few days conducted its operations at the affluent Milimani Neighbourhood in Nakuru town where they were arrested after a sting operation.

“Francis Maina Wambui Alias Nick, 26, and Zellic Alusa, 25, both students at Kenyatta university were arrested during the raid in the company of two young ladies, at an apartment in Nakuru’s posh Milimani neighborhood,” said the DCI.

According to the DCI, they have a unique modus operandi, where they create fake email accounts which help them hack credit cards of unwitting victims, with a particular interest in those living in foreign countries and then use them to purchase bitcoins which are then converted into Kenyan currency.

Thereafter, the suspects use the largs sums of money gotten through the unscrupulous means to make property purchases and support their lavish lifestyles.

“Among the documents recovered in the house was a land sale agreement entered on May, 25, for a property valued at Sh 850,000 in Juja,” the DCI stated.

Some of the items recovered during the operation were five laptops, four mobile phones, two wifi gadgets, three hard drives, and assorted SIM cards.

This comes days after President Uhuru Kenyatta commissioned the DCI National Forensic Laboratory at the agency headquarters, where he challenged security agents to make use of the lab to deal with crimes that involve misuse of technology.

In the wake of the heightened popularity of the Bitcoin currency, crimes related to cryptocurrency have also spiked , as it is easy to erase one's digital footprint as it operates free of any central control or oversight by the banking industry, making easy to hack into people's accounts and use their details to carry out purchases.