Japanese and Thai police cooperate to apprehend the mastermind behind telecom fraud; the suspect resides in a luxury villa in Thailand, selling high-end artworks for Money Laundering.

A leader of a Japanese telecom fraud group was arrested on a flight to Japan. The suspect, Tetsuya Yamaguchi, is a member of the Kanto Union Yakuza. Yamaguchi denied all charges at the time of his arrest, telling the media that he had nothing to do with it and that he had only operated a Japanese restaurant in Cambodia. Thailand and Myanmar have made it a priority this year to eliminate fraud groups and are actively cooperating with various countries to apprehend foreigners who specifically deceive their own nationals. This multinational cooperative operation is the result of collaboration between the Thai police and the Japanese police.

Tetsuya Yamaguchi had previously impersonated a health insurance employee to scam a woman in her 70s in Osaka over the phone in 2022, successfully obtaining 300,000 yen before being arrested by the police. According to intelligence from the Thai police, Tetsuya Yamaguchi is highly likely to be the leader of a Japanese telecom fraud group, whose members kidnap Japanese compatriots to assist him in carrying out telecom fraud in a scam zone in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and launder the illegal proceeds by selling artworks online as a front.

The suspect was arrested by senior Thai police officer Tatchai, who stated that he flew to Japan specifically to collaborate with the Japanese police in order to enhance communication and information exchange with Japanese authorities. This year, Thailand aims to comprehensively eliminate the rampant scam groups in Southeast Asia. He gave an exclusive interview to Japan's ANN News, sharing the process of tracking down and apprehending Tetsuya Yamaguchi.

Thai police launched an investigation after receiving a tip-off from the Japanese embassy.

Tatchai stated that the Thai police received information from the Japanese embassy about Tetsuya Yamaguchi hiding in Thailand. The police launched an investigation and ultimately discovered that Yamaguchi was hiding in a well-known upscale luxury community in Bangkok, where he rented a two-story mansion with a private garden and swimming pool for approximately 800,000 yen.

The suspect sold high-end artworks for money laundering.

According to police intelligence, a fraud group led by Yamamoto rented a building in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, as a base for their scams, where twenty-five Japanese men were held for telecommunications fraud, while Yamamoto himself fled to Thailand. Yamamoto runs an online art sales website called "The Last Samurai of Japan," suspected of laundering money obtained through fraud via the art sales site. When Yamamoto was arrested, he was reportedly in possession of over 130 million yen in virtual currency.

Thai and Japanese police vow to eradicate Southeast Asian fraud syndicates.

Tatchai said another suspect in the scam group is still at large, and police have learned his name. Tatchai said in an interview with Japanese media that the criminal activities of Japanese fraud groups in the Myanmar fraud park are still under investigation, and the fraud suspects specifically pick Japanese people in their own country. Tatchai said that he would meet with the Japanese police chief to exchange information, and he told the media that this year will be a key year to eradicate fraud organizations in Southeast Asia, Thailand and Myanmar will carry out a series of crackdown operations and cross-border cooperation, and in a few months, Thailand will share its experience in eradicating fraud organizations with several countries in Southeast Asia.

In Taiwan, most people can only be rescued from Thai and Myanmar scam zones through the intervention of private anti-fraud organizations. Does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have measures to cooperate with the Thai police, which has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan, to arrest criminals? I hope the Taiwanese authorities can also take proactive action.

This article discusses the collaboration between the Japanese and Thai police to arrest the mastermind of a telecommunications fraud. The suspect resided in a luxury home in Thailand, selling high-end artworks for money laundering. This was first reported by Chain News ABMedia.