94 Vietnamese arrested in Bangkok raid linked to gambling network
Police arrested 94 Vietnamese nationals during a raid on an office in a luxury condominium in Bangkok’s Rama 9 area yesterday, March 4, after suspicions that the site may have been linked to a call centre scam network.
Officers from Makkasan Police Station, Immigration Police and the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau searched the office, which was located on the first floor of the condominium in Huai Khwang district.
Police said the operation followed complaints about a large number of Vietnamese nationals working at the site, which raised suspicions of a possible call centre scam network.
Officers had previously conducted surveillance at the site and found that all personnel working inside the office were foreign nationals. The office reportedly had a tightly locked door and was guarded at all times.
During the search, police found 94 Vietnamese workers, including 69 men and 25 women. Officers also seized 68 computers and laptops, with screens on some active devices reportedly showing Vietnamese online gambling webpages.
Matichon reported that these include online casino games and football betting pages, with transactions shown in Vietnamese dong.
Officers initially assessed that the network may have been operating from Thailand while targeting Vietnamese customers, with large sums of money circulating through the sites.
Police also seized nearly 500 mobile phones from the office, with no details provided on how they were being used at the time of the raid.
The arrested Vietnamese nationals told police through an interpreter that they had been invited to work in customer service roles, and that they had entered Thailand on tourist visas with six other Vietnamese friends.
They claimed they did not know the work involved an online gambling website and said they only learned this after arriving in Thailand.
They also alleged that they were forced to work and were made to stay at a house in the Ratchada area.
Police initially filed charges related to criminal association (อั้งยี่ ซ่องโจร) and offences connected to the illegal operation of an online gambling website. The case remained under investigation as officers examined the seized devices and statements from those arrested.
Elsewhere, an alleged call centre scam gang posed as a mobile network representative in an attempt to deceive a senior police officer. Police later traced the call to a condominium in Nonthaburi province, where officers found equipment potentially linked to illegal activity.
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