A 21-year-old man arrested in Chiang Rai has admitted to having laundered an estimated 30 million baht a day for dozens of Cambodia-based call-centre scam gangs that preyed on Thais, police say.
Officers from the police Technology Crime Suppression Division apprehended Buraphon Yodthu at Village Moo 6 in tambon Mae Salongnok of Mae Fa Luang district, Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai, the TCSD commander, said on Saturday.
The suspect was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the Criminal Court on April 25 last year on charges of colluding in transnational crime, public fraud and inputting false information into a computer system.
The arrest came after TCSD police launched a crackdown operation codenamed “Lockdown the Cat” to arrest members of a call centre scam network that duped a former Thai government official into transferring more than 10 million baht.
The officers managed to arrest the owners of mule accounts, those who hired people to open the accounts, call centre staff and interpreters who worked for a Chinese scam gang boss, said Pol Maj Gen Athip.
The arresting team later learned that Mr Buraphon, a key figure tasked with laundering money for his Chinese boss, had crossed the Cambodian border to return to Thailand. The officers tracked him down to his house on Doi Mae Salong hill in Mae Fa Luang district.
During questioning, the suspect confessed he had worked at an office for a call centre gang in Poipet town. The office, run by his Chinese boss, served as a money laundering hub for about 70 scam gangs that duped Thai victims in various forms.
He told investigators he received service fees of 8-12% of the amount of money he laundered. About 30 million baht a day had been laundered by his office, he added.
The suspect was held in police custody for legal action.
