. >> reporter: department of justice attorney conor mulroe and mississippi district annette williams.we're a small branch office in mississippi. everybody's like what the heck are you doing in mississippi with this stuff? >> reporter: what the team discovered loads of other victims across tyf and girlfrie. >> >> reporter: a virtual network of american e-mules as they describe them. trapped by this romance scam and other methods. and she says those mules were then 145ird by the entire nigerian organization. >> do you have somebody thi mo this package for me? and they'd say sure. >> reporter: investigators say the victims unwittingly helped carry out a bunch of moneymaking schemes like cashing fake checks and shipping goods bought with stolen credit cards. and ultimately wiring the laundered money back to africa. >> it probably moved through four different hands before something went overseas. >> reporter: investigators spent years tracking down the criminals behind the con. and that's when they found the real sam west. unknowingly mixed up in this scheme. >> i was overseas on a governm