The operation was launched under the direction of General Sar Thet, Director General of the National Police, directly commanded by Lieutenant General Muong Sothea and Lieutenant General Chiv Phally, Deputy Director General of the National Police, in coordination with prosecutors of the Svay Rieng Provincial Court.
To date, the police have not released specific figures on the number of arrested subjects as well as seized exhibits. However, authorities said that most of the people involved in this online fraud ring are foreigners.
In that context, on the same day, January 31, the General Department of Immigration of Cambodia announced information about the deportation of nearly 800 foreigners in recent times.
On January 23 and 26, a total of 729 Myanmar citizens, including 217 women, were deported from Cambodia by special flights for violating illegal residence regulations and working without passports.
On the night of January 22 to the morning of January 23, Cambodia also deported 73 South Korean citizens, including 8 women, for similar reasons. The deportation was carried out by specialized aircraft.
According to information posted on the Facebook page of the General Department of Immigration, this is a step to strictly implement the legal measures of the Royal Government of Cambodia to clean up the social environment, eliminate high-tech crime, and ensure safety for people in the country as well as in the region and globally.
Also related to the fight against transnational crime, on January 29, the Sihanoukville Provincial Court sentenced in a large-scale drug trafficking and money laundering case. Eight defendants of mainland Chinese, Taiwanese (China) and Indonesian nationality were sentenced to life imprisonment.
According to the case file, this line organized the transportation of drugs by sea, with a total seized volume of about 1.5 tons. The defendants include: Li Tsung Hsen (32 years old), Hung Hsien Fu (50 years old), Lim Wei Minh (64 years old), Shi Yuanya (47 years old), Huang Xiaoyu (37 years old), Chiu Shui Chia (36 years old), Zhong Yang Qiu (all Chinese nationals) and Andy Winata (53 years old, Indonesian national).
The court determined that this group carried out drug trafficking activities in Cambodia from January 2023 to January 22, 2024, and also carried out money laundering by various methods. In addition to life imprisonment, each defendant was also fined 400 million riel, equivalent to about 100,000 USD.
The subjects were arrested on January 22, 2024, after functional forces blocked a ship of this line originating from Laos when entering the waters of Sihanoukville province at 3:15 am. After that, police simultaneously searched two residential areas in Sihanoukville, seizing about 1.5 tons of drugs, mainly ketamine and methamphetamine.
Investigation results showed that this amount of drugs was expected to be transported by sea to Taiwan (China). Initially, police arrested 5 suspects, then continued to pursue and arrest the remaining 3 subjects, completing the project.
