BANGKOK — Two Chinese kingpins wrestle with police over phones in desperate bid to delete evidence; 15M baht ($44.550) in assets seized
In a dramatic predawn operation, Thai police stormed a luxury Bangkok villa to capture two Chinese nationals accused of running a sophisticated cross-border scam operation. The raid, led by Police Lieutenant General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, turned into a physical confrontation as the suspects desperately tried to destroy digital evidence.
The first arrest came as suspect Li Weijie, 30, arrived at Patio Ratchayothin Village in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district. Li refused to surrender his phone, leading to a struggle with officers. Minutes later, the operation escalated when his associate, Ye Wanyou, 29, barricaded himself inside the villa. Police were forced to break down the door, only to find Ye frantically attempting to delete data from his devices.
“These are not low-level operators,” explained Lt. Gen. Thatchai. “The evidence in their phones revealed they are ‘big bosses’ controlling multiple call centers and money laundering operations in neighboring countries.”
The raid yielded significant assets: a Mercedes Benz Maybach S580e worth 11 million baht, luxury brand goods valued at 4.3 million baht, cash in multiple currencies totaling over 400,000 baht, and crucially, five mobile phones containing extensive evidence of their operations.
Investigators uncovered that the pair had recently expanded into SMS scams, purchasing databases with hundreds of thousands of phone numbers. Their sophisticated “double-tap” scheme involved creating fake police and anti-money laundering social media pages to target previous fraud victims, promising to help recover their losses while actually luring them into further scams.
Both suspects deny all charges as police continue their investigation into what appears to be a extensive cross-border criminal network.
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