Gambiaj.com – (Dakar, Senega) – El Hadji Babacar Dioum, known widely under the alias “Kocc Barma,” has been formally brought before the prosecutor of the Dakar High Court following his arrest last Thursday by Senegal’s Special Cybersecurity Division.
The charges are staggering: cyber extortion, personal data theft, money laundering, and the possession of child sexual abuse material, among other serious offenses. His case is now heading towards a judicial investigation due to what authorities described as its “complexity and far-reaching implications.”
According to investigators, Dioum’s MacBook Pro, seized during a forensic operation, contained over 9,000 structured files cataloged under alarming labels. One of the folders, titled “Paid Not to Publish”, documented in detail the names and payment records of victims who allegedly paid to suppress the publication of their sexually explicit videos.
In one instance, a victim paid 2 million CFA francs, while another transferred €9,668 to avoid public exposure.
The crimes reportedly span from 2017 to April 2025, and financial audits revealed that Dioum’s account with CBAO bank received more than 50 million CFA francs from an accomplice now actively pursued by authorities.
Additionally, 43 million CFA francs were deposited from the international ad monetization platform ExoClick, suggesting that Dioum financially benefited from traffic potentially generated through illicit content.
Disturbingly, another folder named “Newgirl” housed 4,191 sexually explicit videos and images, while a separate folder, “Nouveau dossier 4”, held 147 sexually graphic files, hinting at Dioum’s long-term targeting of new victims.
The case bears resemblance to a growing pattern of cybercrime in Senegal, highlighted recently in the arrest of several online scammers involved in crypto and social media fraud schemes.
These cases have alarmed authorities due to their international connections and the rapid rise of Senegal as a cybercrime hotspot in West Africa. Law enforcement officials now believe Dioum operated within a transnational network—suggesting the potential involvement of collaborators outside the country.
In a further twist, Dioum allegedly recycled his illicit gains through local businesses, including a car dealership named “Mba Authority” and a restaurant called “Eddys,” where police discovered a signal jammer in his office during a raid. At his home in Ngor, police seized a fake police license plate labeled “Accident Section,” along with false vaccination booklets, raising concerns about the range of criminal activities he may have been involved in.
Despite the overwhelming digital and financial evidence compiled by the Division Spéciale de la Cybersécurité (DSC), Dioum attempted to downplay the charges, stating, “I think my computer was hacked.”
Nevertheless, he has been charged with a litany of offenses, including criminal conspiracy and possession and dissemination of pornographic and pedopornographic material, violation of privacy, extortion and blackmail, money laundering, and falsification of official administrative documents.
Authorities say this case marks one of the most significant cybercrime crackdowns in Senegal to date, and investigations are expanding beyond the country’s borders as officials seek to unravel the full extent of the network behind Dioum’s operations.
