When large sums of money were withdrawn from ATMs in Cape Town’s southern suburbs, using cards registered in Zambia, police knew something was up.

They then took to watching CCTV cameras and quickly noticed men using “clothing store gift cards and other cards‚ with the information from the cloned Zambian cards loaded onto them‚ to draw money,” reports Times LIVE:

According to sources‚ the syndicate sourced and built sophisticated card-reading devices‚ known as “high techs”‚ which they placed over ATMs. These were often fitted alongside pinhole cameras which filmed customers inputting PIN codes.

And who was at the core of the syndicate that had cloned hundreds of bank cards?

Angelo Dimov, the Bulgarian man who, along with his wife Nessie Peeva [pictured above], was executed in his Bergvliet home last week.

Below, a supplied picture of the couple, and their daughter, now six, taken about five years ago:

For his card-cloning actions, Dimov was facing fraud charges at the Bellville Commercial Crimes Court:

In 2008‚ the Bulgarian and a Serbian‚ Dejan Kstic‚ were arrested on bank card fraud charges in the Western Cape town of Moorreesburg.

The men were allegedly connected to an international card fraud syndicate running their operation from the southern suburbs‚ where Dimov and his son were arrested with another Bulgarian and four South Africans in August 2013.

Yes, the same son that lived on the Bergvliet property, too.

Police, who are investigating the matter and are following “all leads”, said the couple was shot in the forehead‚ possibly with silenced weapons. Sources suspect it was a professional hit.

Nessie Peeva, Dimov’s wife, was found in the garden of their rented home:

Neighbours told TimesLIVE they did not hear any shots‚ in spite of the fact that Peeva and one of the family dogs were killed in the garden.

It is understood that the couple’s six-year-old daughter had been dropped off at school in the morning and the alarm was raised after her parents did not collect her from aftercare.

That’s some dark stuff.

[source:timeslive]