Police have arrested 10 Chinese nationals for allegedly running a call centre scam and an online gambling operation, with over 100 million baht in monthly circulation, during a raid on a luxury condominium in Watthana district of Bangkok.
A combined team of officers from the Police Cyber Taskforce, the Immigration Bureau and the Tourism Police Bureau searched two condominium units on Soi Sukhumvit 39 on Thursday.
They apprehended 10 Chinese nationals, six of whom were wanted by Chinese authorities on arrest warrants, said Pol Maj Gen Phanthana Nutchanart, commander of the Immigration Bureau’s investigation division.
Seized from them were 19 notebook computers, 79 mobile phones, 167 SIM cards, wi-fi routers, OTP devices, 300 items for operating online gambling, 14 luxury watches, 10 bank accounts, three cars and one motorcycle.
Pol Maj Gen Phanthana said the Chinese embassy in Bangkok had sought cooperation from Thai authorities to help track down 17 Chinese suspects involved in a call centre scam in their country.
After police found out that the suspects were in hiding in Thailand, they sought court approval to search four locations – the two condo units and two other areas in Bangkok.
The suspects had also operated online gambling websites and were involved in fraud. Many victims were Chinese nationals.
However, some Chinese suspects managed to flee. Police would track down them, said Pol Maj Gen Phanthana said.
Further investigation found that the suspects had also run six gambling websites with more than 100 million baht in monthly circulation, he said.
Some Thais had allegedly been involved with them and rented the rooms for them at 50,000 baht a month, according to police investigation.
