The Royal Thai Armed Forces (RTAF) have escalated their response to ongoing border clashes with Cambodia, targeting casinos and commercial complexes to cripple the financial structures supporting the conflict and dismantling Cambodia’s combat capabilities.
RTAF claims the casinos and commercial complexes are implicated in cross-border crime, scamming, and human trafficking, and are now serving a dual purpose as fully equipped command centres for drone operations, according to news outlet the Nation Thailand.
The Thai military said on Facebook, “Two Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) fighter jets, an F-16 and a JAS 39 Gripen, carried out an air strike, bombing casino and scammer bases again in the O’Smach area, opposite Chong Chom, Surin Province.”
“The aforementioned targets were being used by the Cambodian military as military operational sites for launching suicide drones to attack Thailand, and also as locations to conceal heavy weaponry and BM-21 Multiple Rocket Launcher vehicles.”
Thai intelligence suggests the deep integration of Cambodia’s illicit finance with military operations and the vast casino construction projects are almost completed to relocate call centres and scammers from areas like Poipet located on the Thai-Cambodian border and Shwe Kokko in Myanmar.
The operation is aimed at what the Thai military describes as “crushing Hun Sen’s rice bowl,” referring to the financial network linked to the family of Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen, according to the Thai news outlet.
Hun Sen was the former prime minister of Cambodia and father of the current Prime Minister Hun Manet.
US Launches Scam Center Strike Force Against Chinese Transnational Criminal Organizations
The US launched a Scam Center Strike Force on November 12, against Chinese transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), amid the largest cryptocurrency scams in Southeast Asia.
The scam centres are located in Southeast Asia countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.
In announcing the Scam Centre Strike Force, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said, “The consequence of these scams are devastating. Older Americans, in particular, are targets of these scams. Many of them–lonely. Many of them–looking to speak to someone who communicates with them. Their entire life savings–gone. Their retirement funds–gone. Left with no opportunity to go back into the workforce to re-earn money.”
“As the prosecuting office in the nation’s capital, my office has the authority to charge foreign defendants and seize foreign property,” Pirro added.
The TCOs are using cryptocurrency investment scams to steal the life savings of Americans, defrauding Americans of nearly $10 billion per year.
The scammers use social media networks or text messages to the victims’ cell phones, gaining their trust at first.
Over time, the scammers tricked the victims into transferring funds to fake cryptocurrency investment websites and applications, many of which are hosted by companies in the US.
The transferred funds are quickly laundered into other accounts, outside of US jurisdiction.
The largest seizure was $15 billion in bitcoin recently, and the US had charged Chen Zhi, founder of Prince Group, for allegedly masterminding the massive cryptocurrency scams, and other online investments scams.
Chen Zhi, Prince Group, and his accomplices, were sanctioned on October 14 by the US, jointly with the UK, for what was described as the “Largest Action Ever Targeting Cybercriminal Networks in Southeast Asia”for these online scams and the laundering of stolen funds.
The sanctions led to the seizure of assets comprising cash, bank deposits, luxury cars, yacht, expensive liquor, and properties, shares, and investment funds, in multiple countries, such as $61 million in South Korea, $115 million in Singapore, $353 million in Hong Kong, $150 million in Taiwan, and $145.6 million in the UK.
Chen, born in China but became a Cambodian citizen, was also involved in forced labour camps in Cambodia, where innocent people were lured by job prospects, but were instead held in forced labour camps in Cambodia, to scam other people.
The victims were scammed into forced labour, and became scammers themselves.
