PHNOM PENH, crime Cambodia – A Cambodian immigration police officer said Friday that nineteen Japanese men seized in Cambodia in January suspected of participating in organized crime phone and online frauds would be deported to their home country.
The Japanese Embassy in Cambodia is making arrangements for their repatriation, but no date has been established yet, according to Immigration Police spokeswoman Gen. Keo Vanthan.
According to the Japanese public broadcaster NHK, Tokyo police have secured arrest warrants for the 19 Japanese people suspected of running phone scams from Cambodia targeting victims in Japan.
According to NHK, Cambodian officials searching the men’s hotel rooms “discovered a list of Japanese citizens suspected of being targets in a fraud scheme.”
The 19 were apprehended in the southern city of Sihanoukville on January 24 and transferred to the capital, Phnom Penh, where they are being held pending an inquiry by the interior ministry.
Keo Vanthan refused to say anything about the Japanese people who were being held or what they were accused of doing wrong.
However, police in Sihanoukville, known in recent years for crimes like internet and phone frauds, stated in January that they launched the case after receiving information on a crime-fighting hotline that roughly 20 Japanese men were being held and extorted for money.
Last year, cybercrime scams became a serious concern in Cambodia.
They discovered a group .of 19 Japanese men sleeping in a hotel near Sihanoukville, but the guys denied being detained against their will or extorted. They claimed to be visiting Cambodia legitimately and looking for a job, although they were not involved in any crimes or wrongdoing.
However, Sihanoukville police transferred them to Phnom Penh for additional investigation.
Last year, cyber crime scams became a serious concern in Cambodia, with several reports of people from various Asian nations and elsewhere being tricked into taking employment in Cambodia. They were, however, imprisoned in virtual servitude and frequently forced to participate in internet scams targeting people.
Often linked to international organized crime, scam networks are often set up in countries with weak laws and recruit smart young people by promising them big money. The workers are then isolated and threatened with violence unless they succeed in duping victims reached by phone into sending funds to overseas bank accounts.
Recent years have seen fewer operations in Sihanoukville, but they are still happening in other places, like Myanmar near the Thai border. In many cases, these operations are run by organized Chinese criminal syndicates.
SOURCE – (AP)
