SEOUL: In a dramatic cross-border operation last week, 26 South Koreans were arrested at a scam centre near the Cambodia-Vietnam border, while one young man was rescued after being held and tortured at the site, a recent story from The Star reported Sunday.
The raid, carried out Thursday by a joint team of South Korean and Cambodian police, targeted a facility in Mondulkiri province in eastern Cambodia. The National Police Agency (NPA) said the 26 detainees are suspected of running organized scam operations that have hurt people both in South Korea and abroad.
The rescued man, in his 20s, had endured confinement and abuse before officers freed him. Working hard for the operation to succeed were 40 Cambodian police men and four from South Korea, demonstrating the intensive direction and management necessary to complete such dangerous mission.
South Korea has been intensifying their initiatives and giving focused efforts to safeguard its residents from criminals abroad, predominantly online rip-offs.
The crackdown comes as an aftermath of the heartbreaking demise of a Korean college undergraduate who was enticed to a Cambodian scam centre who underwent a tortuous ordeal in August—a case that stunned the nation and provoked calls for tougher international collaboration.
This month alone, the Seoul-Phnom Penh joint task force has arrested 92 scam suspects and rescued two South Korean victims, showing the ongoing commitment to tackling these crimes.
“Through close cooperation between our police authorities, we will continue to intensify efforts against online scams and voice phishing crimes,” said an NPA official.
President Lee Jae Myung also commended the officers, highlighting their bravery. “I deeply appreciate their dedication to completing their mission despite dangerous and harsh conditions. We will further strengthen international cooperation to dismantle organized crime, including online scams and voice phishing,” he wrote in a post on X.
