A combined force of Thai Marines, police and immigration officials raided a resort in Pong Nam Ron district of the eastern province of Chanthaburi Tuesday night and arrested 42 Chinese nationals, suspected to be scammers planning to slip across the border into Cambodia to work in call centres.
The officials seized 215 cellphones, 11 notebook computers, 4 flash drives, 10 SIM cards and 807,000 baht in cash and 4 notepads.
Police claim that most of the Chinese nationals had travelled to Chanthaburi province from northern Thailand, with the objective of working in Cambodia. All 42 of them were staying in 11 rooms in the resort in Tap Sai sub-district.
Only seven were found to have passports. Only three contained valid visas, three were without visas and one had an expired visa. 35 others did not have passports.
38 were charged with illegal entry and four were fined. All are being detained at Pong Namron district police pending legal procedures.
