Cybercrime police have arrested six Thais who allegedly created a non-existent agricultural trading company as a front for a major gambling website with over 3.2 billion baht in circulation.
Five men and one woman were taken into custody during raids in Bangkok and Songkhla in connection with the Fun586 website, said Pol Lt Gen Trairong Phiewphan, chief of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB).
He said the suspects opened mule accounts and set up a fake agricultural trading company as a front for the website, operated by three foreign nationals, with 3.2 billion baht in circulation.
CCIB investigators found that money from the gambling operation had been transferred to the company.
When officers went to the address listed as the company headquarters, it turned out to be a room in a row house. The six suspects were listed as executives of the fake firm, Pol Lt Gen Trairong said at a briefing in Khon Kaen on Saturday.
The money bet by gamblers entered the mule accounts and was then transferred to the company and onward to the operators — two Chinese nationals and one Indonesian — according to Pol Lt Gen Trairong.
The CCIB has sought cooperation from Interpol to arrest the three foreign suspects.
Pol Lt Gen Trairong said the investigation also found that more than 20 Thais and six other foreigners — five Malaysians and one Cambodian — were involved with the website. Warrants have been issued for their arrests, he said.