Vientiane authorities have detained nearly 400 suspects in three separate raids since the start of August, targeting cybercrime, telecommunications fraud, and online gambling operations across the capital.
The most recent raid took place on 12 August, when police struck an online cybercrime operation at the Athena Hotel, a two-building compound in Nongsanokham village, Sikhottabong district.
Officers detained 74 suspects, 71 Chinese nationals, one Vietnamese woman, and two Taiwanese nationals, and seized desktop computers, laptops, and mobile phones. They also found illegal drugs and drug-related items, including unidentified pills and powders, ketamine-laced e-cigarettes known locally as “pod k,” collagen products mixed with drugs, drug-mixing equipment, drug-use paraphernalia, and compressed marijuana. Authorities took the suspects and evidence into custody for further interrogation to trace accomplices.
Four days earlier, on 8 August, Vientiane police raided a telecommunications fraud and online gambling operation at several buildings in the Thatluang Lake Special Economic Zone, registered and owned by Lao Thatluang Investment Development Co., Ltd.
That raid was far larger, with officers detaining 261 suspects from seven nationalities, 153 Chinese, 61 Vietnamese, 36 Thai, five Taiwanese, two Malaysian, two South Korean, and two Myanmar nationals.
The earliest of the three raids occurred on 1 August, when police arrested 63 people across six coordinated locations in Sikhottabong and Hatsayfong districts.
The suspects included 57 Chinese nationals, four Lao nationals, one Cambodian, and one Thai national. The largest single bust, at a rented house in Salakham village, Hatsayfong district, netted 24 Chinese nationals and a scam call center stocked with thousands of phones and dozens of computers.
Officials said Lao authorities will hand the suspects over to Chinese police following interrogation and will blacklist the group under the Law on Entry-Exit and Foreign Management.
Across the three operations, authorities have detained 398 suspects in Vientiane Capital alone in under two weeks, signaling an intensifying crackdown on foreign-linked scam networks operating out of the city.
