According to the Chongqing police, recently, a major cross-border gambling case was cracked, and the "DC" group, listed as one of the "top ten criminal groups" in cross-border gambling by the Ministry of Public Security, was completely dismantled. The group's leader, Lü, who is one of the "top ten wanted criminals" in cross-border gambling nationwide, surrendered to the authorities.
In October 2020, the public security organs received a tip-off about online gambling and traced it to a network gambling platform belonging to the "DC" group in the Philippines. Founded in 2009, the group primarily operated online gambling services such as card games and slot machines. It attracted domestic citizens to gamble by advertising and developing agents to return commissions, fostering an underground financial chain that included cross-border money laundering, severely affecting social stability and economic security.
The Ministry of Public Security designated the case as a supervised case and assigned the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau to investigate. The Nan'an District Branch of the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau took the lead, drawing elite police forces to form a special case team. The investigation revealed that the group operated seven online gambling platforms, including Qianyi and Lehu, developed several related companies in research and development, customer service, etc., within the country, and collaborated with numerous domestic and foreign illegal payment and underground financial groups.
At its peak, the group had over 800 employees, luring domestic personnel to the Philippines with high salaries. Once the job seekers arrived and became employees of the group, their passports were confiscated, and their personal freedom was restricted.
The police officer from the special case team explained that the group's online gambling platforms attracted gamblers to register, recharge their memberships, and the recharged gambling funds were laundered and transferred abroad by "underground banks" into the group's accounts. The group had an average annual recharge turnover of 10 billion yuan and a net profit of 400 million yuan.
Under the command of the Ministry of Public Security, the special case team launched three rounds of concentrated nationwide arrests, capturing 79 main suspects and over 3700 agents, dismantling more than 4300 domestic gambling recruitment and absorption points, freezing over 11,000 related accounts, and seizing over 300 million yuan in related funds. They also dismantled 7 gambling-related enterprises and 13 illegal payment platforms.
The main suspect, Lü, was hiding abroad. The Ministry of Public Security coordinated with Interpol to issue a red notice for his global arrest. Relying on cross-border law enforcement cooperation mechanisms, the special case team actively pursued Lü and launched a psychological offensive against him, leading to his eventual flight from abroad to Chongqing to surrender.
After Lü's arrest, he actively confessed to the crimes, returned the illicit money, and cooperated with the police to shut down all the group's online gambling platforms. Thus, this cross-border gambling criminal group was completely destroyed.
