Nine Chinese nationals were arrested at Sri Lanka’s main international airport while attempting to smuggle in communication equipment allegedly intended for cyberscam operations, customs authorities said.
Yesterday’s arrests come two weeks after police detained 152 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese, for allegedly running a cyberscam operation out of a hotel in the island’s northwest.
The Chinese embassy in Colombo said it was working closely with local authorities to prevent its nationals from carrying out scamming operations.
The latest airport incident saw Sri Lankan officers recover 383 used mobile phones, 101 tablet computers, six WiFi routers and GPS trackers from the arriving Chinese nationals, a customs spokesman said.
“The equipment was taped to the bodies of the suspects,” the spokesman added, noting that the haul was valued at 24 million rupees (RM299,000).
Organised criminal gangs have used casinos, hotels and fortified compounds across South-East Asia as bases to carry out online scams, defrauding people through cryptocurrency investment schemes and fake romantic relationships, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Until a crackdown this year, the region was the epicentre of the multibillion-dollar online scam industry in which hundreds of thousands of fraudsters – some trafficked, others willing workers – cheat Internet users globally.
“Due to Sri Lanka’s well-developed telecommunications infrastructure, favourable geographical location and relatively lenient visa policies, some telecom fraud gangs have moved to Sri Lanka,” the Chinese embassy in Colombo said recently. — AFP
