BANGKOK: Metropolitan Police said on Thursday (Aug 6) that tracing money flows from a drug case had led investigators to a transnational call-centre scam network and four arrests involving Vietnamese nationals.
Officers seized gold bars, gold jewellery, latest-model iPhones and numerous other assets.
Police said the group converted cash obtained through fraud into gold before moving it abroad.
While three suspects were being questioned, a Vietnamese woman arrived at the police station with THB150,000 and allegedly tried to bribe officers.
A deputy Metropolitan Police commissioner ordered a sting operation, leading to her arrest in a separate case.
The operation was ordered by national police chief Pol Gen Kitrat Phanphet and Metropolitan Police Bureau Commissioner Pol Lt Gen Siam Boonsom.
Pol Maj Gen Teeradet Thammasuthee, the deputy bureau commissioner responsible for narcotics, worked with a joint team of metropolitan police investigators and officers from Metropolitan Police Division 7 and Khokkram station to trace money flows from a drug case involving crystal methamphetamine hidden in parcel boxes sent to Japan and an online scam in which a student was deceived into faking their own kidnapping for ransom.
Investigators later found that cash had been converted into gold bars and mobile phones.
Police said an in-depth investigation indicated that the group had systematically divided its duties, concealed how it operated and stayed together at a hotel in the Nawamin area of Ram Inthra subdistrict, Bueng Kum district, Bangkok.
Officers raided the hotel and arrested three Vietnamese suspects.
Police identified them as Hien, 29, Lam, 40, and Nguyen, 33.
Officers seized a document recording a transaction for 40 baht-weight of gold, which was to be used to collect the gold from a shop, and several smartphones.
The three were sent to investigators at Khokkram station and charged with joint membership of a secret society.
Police also initiated legal proceedings against them for jointly defrauding the public in connection with a call-centre gang case handled by Lumpini station.
Hien, listed as suspect No. 1, was additionally charged with joint participation in a transnational criminal organisation in a case involving crystal methamphetamine concealed in tamarind paste and sent to Japan, handled by Bang Yi Khan station.
During questioning, Hien told investigators that she had been paid to travel to buy gold and collect mobile phones on the instructions of a Vietnamese woman named Hoa through Telegram.
She received US$15 a day.
Hien also told police that she had entered Thailand on two previous assignments and that this was her third.
She was instructed on Friday (July 31, 2026) to buy a total of 17 baht-weight of gold bars.
Each time she visited a gold shop, she presented proof of a transfer showing that the person who hired her had paid in advance, allowing her to collect the gold.
She then handed it to a person with whom a delivery had been arranged in Bangkok.
The case began when a victim received calls from members of the gang impersonating an employee of a telecommunications company and an officer from Mueang Ranong Police Station.
They claimed that the victim’s identity card details had been used to open a bank account linked to money laundering, sent a forged court order and threatened the victim into transferring money to “prove their innocence”.
The victim believed the claims and transferred THB200,000 to a mule account used by the group.
After becoming suspicious, the victim filed a complaint at Lumpini station, enabling officers to trace the network.
After the suspects were taken to Khokkram station for questioning, officers were informed that someone was attempting to offer money in exchange for their release.
Police reported the information to their superiors and prepared a sting operation.
Police said Le Thi, a 39-year-old Vietnamese national, later drove a Toyota C-HR to Khokkram station and entered its mediation room.
She allegedly handed an officer THB150,000 in cash and asked for help with the case.
Officers arrested her as soon as the money was handed over and charged her with bribing a public official.
They seized 150 THB1,000 banknotes, totalling THB150,000, as evidence.
Teeradet, also a deputy national police spokesman, said the arrests resulted from the expansion of the drug investigation, which revealed a network linked to a call-centre gang.
He said its role was to convert cash obtained through fraud into gold and mobile phones before sending the assets to beneficiaries in Vietnam.
“This network’s role was not limited to fraud. Its members also divided responsibilities to convert cash into assets that are difficult to trace, cutting the financial trail before moving them out of the country. This reflects the planning and systematic operations of a transnational criminal organisation,” Teeradet said.
Teeradet also warned members of the public to assume they were dealing with a call-centre gang if anyone claiming to be a government official or to represent an agency threatened them by phone or demanded a money transfer to “prove their innocence”.
He urged them to end contact immediately and notify police or the relevant hotline.
Investigators at Khokkram station have all four suspects in custody pending legal proceedings and are urgently gathering evidence.
Police are also tracing those who gave the orders, coordinators and other participants in Thailand and abroad to pursue legal action against them to the fullest extent of the law. - The Nation/ANN
