Phuket: Cyber police launched an operation 'Hunting down and destroying international illegal capital', leading forces to arrest a Taiwanese illegal gang in the middle of Phuket Island, working with Thais to create a system to conceal the money trail of gambling websites.
According to Thai News Agency, Pol. Lt. Gen. Trairong Phiwpaen, Commander of the Technology Crime Suppression Division, along with Pol. Maj. Gen. Wiwat Khamchamnan, Deputy Commissioner of the Technology Crime Suppression Division, and Pol. Maj. Gen. Tingkorn Rangmat, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau and Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Technology Crime Suppression Division, jointly announced the results of the operation 'Hunting Down the Island, Breaking Up International Grey Capital'. They used a search warrant to search a house in a luxury village in Phuket Province. Three Taiwanese and three Thais were arrested, who were part of the team that managed the financial system and concealed the financial trails for several online gambling websites. They also seized 119 mobile phones, two computers, 19 bankbooks, six ecstasy pills, and 74.5 grams of ketamine.
The suspects will enter Thailand and rent a luxury house or expensive condominium as their base of operations. They will move their locations from place to place and then create a specific financial system for gamblers to deposit money through a created application, and the system will automatically transfer the money to the account set up. They hired Thais to open mule accounts and scan their faces. The process is carried out both in Thailand and abroad. When money is transferred to the gambling website account, the money will be automatically transferred to the account set up, several 10 accounts at a time. This is different from the old mule account system, which transfers money to each account one by one until it reaches the beneficiary. This process uses the gaps in Thailand's financial transactions that are still lacking to create a financial payment system for gambling websites. An investigation found that there was a monthly turnover of 20 million baht in the account, which could be frozen immediately .
From the investigation, the Taiwanese suspect confessed that he was hired to travel to work in Thailand to take care of the system. He was paid 50,000 baht per month and took turns working 24 hours a day to take care of the system and check the balance to match the slips that gamblers transferred money into. If the program notified him to scan his face to confirm his bank account identity, he would have a Thai person who was a mule account scan his face. The Thai person was paid 2,500 baht per account to open an account and register a phone SIM card. Each person would open 4 accounts and would receive a salary of 20,000 baht per month for scanning their faces.
Initially, the police reported that they were charged with 'colluding to organize online gambling without permission, colluding to launder money, arranging to advertise for the trading of deposit accounts, phone numbers, opening or allowing others to use deposit accounts or phone numbers while knowing or should have known that they would be used to commit an offense, and possessing Category 1 and Category 2 narcotics with intent to sell, which is illegal.'
However, the Cyber Police have requested the Phuket Provincial Court to issue arrest warrants for 29 suspects, leaving 26 others who are still being tracked down and arrested, including both Thais and foreigners. Currently, the investigation is underway to expand the results.