Cambodia arrests 800 in latest casino scam centre raid

Cambodian police have reportedly dismantled yet another scam operation, this time detaining 800 scammers operating from the Xinli Casino in southern Cambodia.

Local media reports that police discovered the hundreds of scammers nestled on the 18th and 19th floors of the casino, located in the coastal city of Sihanoukville.

They detained 800 individuals whose nationalities include Chinese, American, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Pakistani, Indian, and Khmer nationals. Police reportedly seized 650 computers and 1,000 mobile phones.

The latest raid adds to the country’s tally of 200 scam center busts its carried out this year.

Read more: Cambodian scam rings facing disruption since kingpin’s arrest

The senior minister for Cambodia’s Commission for Combating Online Scams, Chhay Sinarith, told the publication that 11,000 scam workers have been deported and 173 top crime figures have been arrested since Cambodia began its crackdown campaign late last year.

Earlier this week, officials granted Reuters access to another compound in Kampot known as “My Casino.”

Around 7,000 workers reportedly fled the compound after its owner, casino tycoon Ly Kuong, was arrested last month. Police claim they weren’t able arrest any fleeing workers.

Kampot’s Chief of Police, Mao Chanmothurith, told reporters that the entire province only has 1,000 policemen and 300 military policemen and that “even with both forces combined, we still can’t stop them because there were about 6,000 to 7,000 of them.”

Read more: China executes four more in pig butchering scam crackdown

These compounds are often full of trafficked victims who are forced to carry out cryptocurrency scams, including so-called “pig-butchering.”

Cambodia scam compounds are in disarray

Last year, the US indicted the alleged scam kingpin Chen Zhi. He runs the Prince Group and is accused of stealing billions of dollars from victims via an international scam network.

Chen was arrested last month and extradited to China, which has executed a number of scam kingpins since the start of the year.

His arrest threw many scam compounds into disarray, forcing thousands of workers flee and leading to what Amnesty International claims is a “humanitarian crisis.”

Reuters notes how Cambodia has been lax with these scam operations in the past, but stepped up its enforcement after international pressure from the US and China.