Penang cops bust international online gambling ring
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BALIK PULAU, July 19 — Penang police busted an international online gambling and investment syndicate after arresting five men including a foreigner in a series of raids around the state yesterday.
South-west district police chief Supt Kamarul Rizal Jenal said acting on information and intelligence, the police mounted three raids in this district and the North-east district before arresting the five men and seizing various equipment used for the activities.
“In the first raid at 7.30pm, they raided a house in the Pantai Jerjak Bayan Lepas, near here and arrested three local men together with a foreign man aged between 30 and 41 years old, believed to be carrying out investment and online gambling activities there.
“Preliminary checks also found elements of online gambling using the links ‘bwc88nep.com’ and ‘merc.adminbwc88ags.com’. We then raided a house in Jelutong, near here at 10.35pm before arresting a 30-year-old local man,” he said in a statement tonight.
He said the police later raided another office premises in Jelutong at 11.30pm with no arrests, but the investigation found that it was used to carry out online gambling activities.
“The syndicate used the premises for creating advertisements (graphic designing) and distributing advertisements (on social media such as Facebook) promoting gambling platforms to those in Nepal, Singapore and Malaysia,” said Kamarul Rizal.
Kamarul Rizal said police also found equipment believed to be a set of crypto-mining machines, adding that there was also evidence of electricity metre tampering at the premises.
“Following the raid, the police seized various items including eight computer monitors, laptops (five units), computers (five units), mobile phones of various brands (seven), bank cards, notebooks containing advertising scripts for online gambling and mining machines,” he said.
The suspects are being remanded for four days to assist in the investigation and the police are actively tracing their network.
“Further investigations are still being carried out including tracking down the mastermind of the syndicate and the case is being investigated according to Sections 420 and 427 of the Penal Code, Section 4(1)(c) of the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 and Section 37(1) of the Electricity Supply Act 1990,” he said. — Bernama
