Police have arrested a Chinese woman for various crimes, including fraud and money laundering, following raids on 29 locations linked to her in Bangkok, Pathum Thani and Chon Buri.
Fengpei Cai was apprehended in her luxury apartment in the Lumpini area of Bangkok, Pol Lt Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha, chief of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), said on Thursday.
She is expected to face charges of colluding in transnational crimes, fraud, putting false information into a computer system and money laundering.
Police also confiscated over 100 items from 29 locations linked to the suspect, including a 36-million baht Rolls-Royce, other luxury cars including Alphard and Mercedes-Benz, and documents for lease agreements worth 1.5 billion baht.
Ms Cai was a real estate agent in Thailand whose customers were mostly Chinese, according to Pol Maj Gen Sathit Prom-uthai, commander of CCIB Division 3.
He said the Chinese woman and other accomplices divided up tasks to lure victims. She had duped victims into investing in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes, he added.
In a separate case, police teams searched three locations in Bangkok, including a room at a luxury condominium project in the Asok-Rama IX area.
During their search, they arrested Moe Moe Aye, 24, a Myanmar national. She faces charges of colluding in fraud, inputting false information into a computer system, laundering money and related offences.
Seized from the room were 4.4 million baht in cash, 17 bank passbooks and 16 ATM cards. The raids on the two other premises found nothing illegal.
Police said the venues were linked to a phone scam gang in which a member posed as a police chief in Tak province to dupe victims into transferring money.
An investigation of her transaction history revealed that Moe Moe Aye had withdrawn about 15 million baht for the gang and 87 million baht had passed through her accounts since the beginning of this year.
A Rolls-Royce worth 36 million baht and a Lexus are among the vehicles seized by police in raids on Thursday. (Photo supplied/Wassayos Ngamkham)