Indonesian police recently launched a large-scale raid in four locations including Mawo in West Java, Wujiasai, Tanggerang in Banten, and Denpasar in Bali, successfully dismantling an international online gambling syndicate and arresting 22 suspects. The police noted that the gang was directly connected to gambling servers in China and Cambodia, forming a cross-border operational chain.
According to the Indonesian National Police Criminal Investigation Department, the criminal group primarily profited from operating two overseas gambling platforms. They generated up to 500 WhatsApp accounts daily by registering a large number of SIM cards, sending millions of users promotional messages containing gambling links, which included offers like recharge gifts and winning inducements, essentially constituting scam advertisements. Additionally, they used Telegram and WhatsApp groups for internal communication and customer data management, establishing a comprehensive virtual "customer service" and "finance" system.
To evade law enforcement tracking, the gang quickly converted their illegal earnings into cryptocurrencies and then cashed out through third-party payment channels, while disguising their activities as legitimate e-commerce transactions to complete the money laundering process. The police estimate that the organization has illegally profited billions of Indonesian Rupiah over the past year.
During the raid, 354 mobile phones, 23 computers, 2648 SIM cards, 8 laptops, 18 ATM cards, 5 passbooks, 11 WiFi devices, and several network communication tools were seized. The police stated that the arrested individuals would be prosecuted under the Gambling Law, Information and Electronic Transactions Law, and Anti-Money Laundering Law, facing 10 to 15 years in prison and fines up to 1 billion Indonesian Rupiah.
This case is considered one of the largest gambling money laundering crackdowns in recent years in Indonesia, highlighting the Indonesian authorities' "zero tolerance" stance on cross-border cybercrime.
