A court in Tachileik Myanmar has sentence 152 Thais caught in a dragnet operation cracking down on online gambling dens and call center gangs in early 2024. A total of 152 people, 77 men and 75 women were sentenced to 2 years in prison for illegal entry and working in Myanmar illegally.
The Thais workers were arrested by Myanmar authorities while working in an online gambling den in Tachileik, next to Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai District since February 23, 2024.
After waiting for 6 months of waiting relatives were allowed to cross into Tachileik on August 11, to visit their loved ones before the Tachileik Provincial Court passed sentencing.
The Tachileik Provincial Court sentenced all 152 people to 2 years in prison, most of whom were convicted on 2 charges: illegal entry which gave 6 months imprisonment and 1 year and 6 months imprisonment for working illegally.
According to the Tachileik News Agency (TNA) they all will be sent to prison is in Chiang Tung Province, approximately 168 kilometers north of Tachilek on the morning of August 15th. All of the Thais sentenced were approximately 20-30 years old.
They were arrested after they crossed over to work in Tachilek Province for both day and night shifts at Casinos and illegal call centers. They allegedly park their motorcycles in Mae Sai District, then they would cross into Myanmar illegally to work. Some earning thousands of baht per month.
They arrests came after a crackdown when the Chinese government claimed its citizens were being affected by call center gangs. Chinese officials pressured various administrative regions in the Shan State to eradicate the problem. More than 700 suspects were arrested, of which 152 were Thais, and the rest were Chinese and Burmese.
Since the crackdown on gambling dens and call center gangs in Tachilek have reopened for business as usual.
Authorities in Northern Thailand have been struggling to contain the placing of portable telecommunication towers in remote areas, that operates with the use of sim card cloaking equipment that give off fake cell number to Thai government numbers.
The scammers place calls into Thailand pretending to be Thai officials to con elderly Thai people and others out of their money through intimidation and threats of legal proceedings.
