A total of 130 people has been apprehended from an alleged criminal ring that operated a gambling website via the Philippines targeting South Koreans and generating KRW1.3 trillion (US$1.09 billion) in bets over 30 months.
The enforcement action was reported by Yonhap News Agency, citing the international crime investigation unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
The report said nine people had been formally arrested, and a person identified as the group’s leader, who had fled to the Philippines, was to be repatriated to South Korea.
According to the report, the operation was said to have streamed live games from a hotel casino in the Philippines, and additionally between July 2018 to December 2019, to have run sports betting via a website.
Yonhap said South Korean police had investigated the operation for two years, following a tip off in September 2019.
A total of 150 members had been identified and 130 caught. So-called ‘red notices’ had been issued to law enforcement agencies, regarding the missing 20 people.
Police had confiscated alleged criminal proceeds worth about KRW800 million, that had been transferred to South Korea via cryptocurrency transactions.
