Interpol nabs illegal gambling network in Asia

Interpol, Lyon-based international police agency, has cracked down organised crime networks engaged in illegal gambling across Asia during the Football World Cup in Russia. The agency has seised more than 1.7 million U.S. dollars and arrested hundreds of suspects.

The agency has conducted more than 14,900 raids at illegal gambling dens across China, including Hong Kong and Macao, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, where an estimated 1.6 billion U.S. dollars-worth of bets were handled.

Between June 22 and July 16, more than 1.7 million U.S. dollars in cash was seised, in addition to 1000 computers and mobile phones which are being analysed in the ongoing investigation.

“With the Hong Kong Police Force alone seizing betting slips worth 16.8 million U.S. dollars, Operation SOGA VII owes its success largely to the power of global and regional police cooperation through Interpol,” said Tat-Shing Man, Interpol’s the chairman of the Asia-Pacific expert group on organised crime.

“Participating jurisdictions made the most of our solid collective experience of six previous SOGA operations which enabled us to clearly anticipate links between Asian betting syndicates and their illegal counterparts operating beyond Asia’s borders during the World Cup,” he added.

So far, Interpol’s soccer gambling operations have led to the arrest of 30,000 suspects and the seizure of about 57 million U.S. dollars in cash, in addition to the closure of more than 3700 illegal gambling dens which handled almost 8 billion U.S. dollars worth of bets.

Source: xinhuanet.com