Bangkok: South Koreans have been arrested in Cambodia as part of a crackdown on scammers. South Korean officials revealed on Wednesday that 51 South Korean citizens were arrested in a joint police raid on a criminal gang's building in Cambodia earlier this week, along with the rescue of a South Korean man who had been detained.
According to Thai News Agency, South Korean and Cambodian police officers detained 51 South Koreans on suspicion of involvement in a scam and aiding a man in his 20s who was being held captive and tortured, during a raid in Sihanoukville on Tuesday. This operation comes as South Korea has stepped up efforts to combat crimes targeting South Koreans in Cambodia, such as online scams, following the August incident in which a South Korean student was lured to a scammer center in Cambodia and tortured to death.
This week's crackdown comes after a joint special operation by South Korean and Cambodian police received a report on December 4 that a 20-year-old South Korean man was being held captive. The joint operation involved approximately 100 South Korean police officers, officers from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and Cambodian police commandos.
Recently, police officials from South Korea and Cambodia agreed on procedures for rapidly deploying officers in the event of an emergency. The South Korean National Police Agency stated that this operation was a large-scale joint rescue and arrest mission by police from both countries, utilizing the Korean-Cambodian Joint Task Force for Korean citizens. Its objectives included protecting Korean citizens abroad and dismantling large-scale criminal organizations.