Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post
Four Koreans have been arrested for running online gambling websites in Bangkok, authorities say.
Read the following story from the Bangkok Post to learn more about the arrest.
Four South Korean nationals were charged with allegedly running online gambling websites in Bangkok. Police identified the suspects as Lee Min-kyu, Kim Hong-in, Park Jung-gi and Son Suck-won.
SUDDEN RAID
Police from the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), the Police Tourist Division and Thong Lor police on July 2 raided a room on the 12th floor of a luxury condominium on Sukhumvit Soi 26 in Klong Toey district, after they received a tip-off that the foreign suspects had been operating illegal online gambling.
Police also confiscated 11 mobile phones and four computers.
More than 1 billion baht has been found circulating in their gambling system, police said.
CRIMINAL BACKGROUND
Authorities said the suspects entered Thailand on April 22 and rented the room at the condo for 70,000 baht a month, where they offered illegal online betting on football and poker.
Torsak Sookwimol, acting commander of the CSD’s Special Forces Unit, said the raid was related to an operation carried out at the end of June, in which several South Koreans were arrested at a condominium in the Khlong Tan area on suspicion of being part of a telephone-fraud call centre gang.
ILLEGAL NETWORK
According to the investigation, the suspects arrested and charged on July 2 were found to be connected to the Korean call centre network and also several gambling dens, including some in the Philippines and Cambodia.
Torsak said these call centres use Thailand as their illegal business base, from where they call people in South Korea posing as bank officials and con victims into wiring money to their accounts.
Thai authorities will work with the agency to devise more stringent measures to crack down on these illegal networks, Torsak said.
Exercises
Read the story. Then, decide whether each of the following statements is true or false.
1. The four suspects are from North Korea.
……………….
2. The suspects work as bank officials.
……………….
3. The suspects entered Thailand in April last year.
……………….
4. CSD stands for the Crime Suppression Division.
……………….
Vocabulary
- tip-off (n): secret information that somebody gives to the police about an illegal activity
confiscate (v): to officially take something away from somebody
fraud (n): the crime of cheating somebody in order to get money or goods illegally
con (v): to trick somebody, especially in order to get money from them
