The Nation - News from Sept. 18, 1986

A growing criminal network of Nigerian nationals, which controls some of the U.S. drug market and reaps millions of dollars from credit card and student loan frauds, has become a major law enforcement problem, witnesses told a Senate investigations subcommittee. Postal Inspector Martin Biegelman estimated that Mastercard and Visa lost about $20 million to credit card fraud committed by Nigerians in 1985. A subcommittee investigator said that much of the fraud takes place on college campuses, where Nigerians in the United States on student visas are recruited to file millions of dollars worth of false student-loan claims.