Four South Korean nationals have been 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.
Police from the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), the Police Tourist Division and Thong Lor police yesterday 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.
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.
Pol Lt Col Torsak Sookwimol, acting commander of the CSD's Special Forces Unit, said the raid was related to an operation carried out last week 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.
According to the police investigation, the suspects arrested and charged yesterday were found to be connected to the Korean call centre network and also several gambling dens, including some in the Philippines and Cambodia.
Pol Lt Col 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.
Interpol said these online gambling gangs are part of transnational crime rings. Thai authorities will work with the agency to devise more stringent measures to crack down on these illegal networks, Pol Lt Col Torsak said.
The suspects have been remanded in police custody at Thong Lor police station. They were charged with illegal online gambling and working in Thailand without legal work permits.