The intelligence operation against illegal call centers lasted four and a half months.
Police detained 3,455 citizens from 20 countries, including Russians, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Computers, phones, and passports were seized during the searches. The operation resulted in the rescue of forcibly detained victims of human trafficking and the deportation of 2,825 foreigners.
About 70 foreign citizens have been charged with organizing and complicitly participating in cryptocurrency fraud. Fraudulent crypto brokers lured investors to fake digital asset platforms with promises of quick profits.
Cambodia police explained that not all employees of criminal cyber syndicates were held against their will. Some involved in crypto scams abroad were working at the call centers knowingly and voluntarily.
This summer, Cambodian police detained Russian citizen Roman Pichugin, suspected of organizing a fake cryptocurrency mining center and stealing investors' funds. On August 20, Cambodian law enforcement, at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, deported Pichugin and handed him over to Interpol Russia.