Police in Argentina have arrested a 19-year-old man accused of heading a gang of hackers who targeted international money transfer and gambling websites, according to the BBC.

 

Authorities said the teenager, dubbed the “superhacker,” had been making $50,000 a month working from his bedroom in Buenos Aires, the capital.

 

He faces more than 10 years in prison if convicted of the theft-related charges against him.

 

Police say it took them a year to close in on the leader, who lived with his father, a computer expert, in Buenos Aires.

 

He was detained at his home in July following a police operation that included raids in the capital and in Rosario, a city about 190 miles north of Buenos Aires, the BBC reported.

 

“Operation Zombie” — the police investigation leading to the arrests — began more than a year ago, when a businessman who offered hosting services for personal web pages on his servers reported that a hacker was remotely entering the servers in order to intercept monetary transfers, the Associated Press reported.

 

The hackers allegedly used malware attacks to build up a network of thousands of “zombie” computers to illegally divert money from accounts without leaving behind any trace of the thefts.