Seven arrested while allegedly withdrawing cash for Chinese call-centre gang

Police have arrested seven suspects, including a Laotian man, while they were allegedly withdrawing cash from ATMs in Lamphun for a Chinese call-centre gang operating along the Lao border.

Officers from the Provincial Police Bureau 5 made the arrests at the Wiang Nong Long branch of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives in Lamphun’s Mueang district at 3 pm.

Pol Lt Gen Kritthaporn Yisakhon, commissioner of the bureau, said his office had been alerted by the Royal Thai Police information centre after banks reported suspicious withdrawals from mule accounts in Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Lampang. Victims had been deceived into transferring money into these accounts.

Police rushed to the bank branch after being alerted by staff.
The suspects were identified as:

• Saranpong (surname withheld), 51, Chiang Mai resident: suspected supervisor of mule account owners
• Nanthanat (surname withheld), 48, Chiang Mai resident: suspected supervisor of mule account owners
• Keo Mounseelavong, 25, Laotian: suspected supervisor of mule account owners
• Sairung (surname withheld), 43, Lamphun resident: suspected supervisor of mule account owners
• Ekkachai (surname withheld), 40, Lamphun resident: suspected mule account owner
• Nattaphat (surname withheld), 27, Lamphun resident: suspected mule account owner
• Withoon (surname withheld), 43, Sakon Nakhon resident: suspected mule account owner

Kritthaporn said police seized cash worth 549,000 baht, one passbook, seven mobile phones, and two tablet computers from the suspects.

He added that the suspects were believed to have been withdrawing cash for the gang’s Chinese boss, who operates from the Kings Roman casino on the Lao side and is known to have a Laotian wife. The money was typically converted into cryptocurrency and transferred to the boss in Laos.

The gang paid its members as follows: the vehicle driver received 2,000 baht per day; mule account owners earned 7,000 baht for every one million baht transferred; and recruiters of mule account owners were paid 12,000 baht per one million baht transferred.

Kritthaporn said the suspects’ group had generated around 40 million baht for the Chinese boss, with at least 11 Thai victims already deceived. He added that his bureau had made three arrests so far and seized about 5 million baht to return to victims.