china: Chinese criminal syndicates under guise of business ventures on the rise in SE Asia

Chinese criminal syndicates under guise of business in Southeast Asian countries are on rise operating across borders creating headache for law enforcement agencies.

Several Chinese syndicates are along the border between Cambodia and Thailand. The syndicates have taken advantage of COVID-19 which has rendered many youth unemployed, ET has learnt.

There is an increasing economic integration between China and Southeast Asia over the past decade, which has seen sharp increase in Chinese investment in the region. But such enterprises have an illegal dimension. The activities are also taking place in territories and special economic zones that exist beyond the effective reach of the host country’s legal apparatus.

In a cross-border operation on April 10-11, the Thai and Cambodian police rescued 68 Thai workers from Chinese scam gangs that were running call centers in Sihanoukville in…