Cambodia urged to target ‘key figures’ as Chinese scam gangs defy crackdowns in ‘sin city’

During the latest raid March 9-10, officials arrested more than 450 people who were allegedly part of illegal online gambling and “pig-butchering” scam businesses thriving behind the fronts of authorised casinos.

While the investigations showed the “increased level of concern” from local authorities, the efforts were not extensive enough to extinguish the scam operations, said Benedikt Hofman, deputy representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

“The focus on law enforcement and raids will most likely lead to geographic shifts rather than lasting impact,” he added. “If past experience is any indication, business will be back in a few months.”

According to local reports, some Chinese workers who had been on a Lunar New Year break avoided being rounded up by delaying their return to Sihanoukville, while others reportedly checked into hotels to avoid being caught at their work stations.

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‘I was beaten quite often’: Victim recounts experience with Cambodia scam operation

Police raids usually target relatively small and obscure scam operations, said Huang Yan, a Chinese reporter based in Cambodia who monitors scam-related news for the Chinese-language news outlet Angkor Observer, including workers believed to be scamming their nationals in Thai, Vietnamese and Khmer languages.

But after the crackdown, Sihanoukville’s governor Kuoch Chamroeun appealed on Facebook for information about Zhong Huokun, a Chinese national suspected of owning one of the two raided premises.

“Before this crackdown, they always arrested the low-level staff members, but they did not catch many general managers of the scam groups, and they never reached the level of the scam compound owners,” Yan said.