Police on Wednesday raided facilities in Sa Kaeo province and found numerous cross-border high-speed internet cables used to support call scammers in Cambodia.
Deputy national police chief Torsak Sukwimol led a force to search six locations in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo in a bid to suppress call scammers by cutting off their internet access.
The locations included a state-owned telecommunications service outlet, where police checked to see if any internet cables were illegally laid to extend internet services across the border.
Officers later found about 30 internet cables erected on power poles and running across the Thai-Cambodian border from behind the Ban Klong Luk border railway station, which stands beside a bridge across the Klong Luk border canal to Cambodia's Poipet town.
"The cables supported more than 10,000 internet lines believed to serve the call scam gangs that have defrauded many Thai people... Police have found that the cables were used to illegally extend internet access to the neighbouring country," Pol Gen Torsak said.
In Wednesday's raids, police arrested eight suspects – including government employees, he said.
"Disconnecting the internet proactively tackles call scams," Pol Gen Torsak said. "It may be too late to seize their bank accounts, because victims' money may have been turned into digital currencies and become irretrievable. Dealing with the cables can effectively help solve the problem." .
Earlier police seized more than 200,000 SIM cards used for call scams, and [scam-related] crime dropped by about 25%, he said.
The deputy national police chief said police were expanding their investigation into the activities of the government employees arrested in Sa Kaeo on Wednesday.