Officers from the Nong Khai Immigration Office, Immigration Division 4 and relevant agencies raided four residences in Mueang district, as those residences were suspected to be a call-centre gang’s hideout.
The police arrested 13 suspects, including five Thais and eight Lao nationals. They also confiscated servers, routers, CCTV cameras, mobile phones, laptops and other equipment as evidence.
However, a native of Phrae province, who is the owner of four residences, was not there. Those residences were built near each other about two years ago, the police said.
The police noted that this gang operated two online gambling websites – FBC189 in Thailand and UFAR88 in Laos – using SIM cards of two countries.
The gang has generated circulating funds of around 3.5 million baht a month, including 2 million baht from FBC189 and 1.5 million baht from UFAR88, the police explained.
Initially, the police charged suspects with organising gambling and luring people to play gambling via the electronic system, as well as violation of migrant worker laws.
The suspects were escorted to police investigators at Mueang Nong Khai Police Station for legal action. Further investigation is underway to arrest other suspects.