Cambodia Dismantles Telecom Fraud Zone, Arrests Over 2,000 Foreigners, Most of Them Chinese Citizens

(Phnom Penh, 2nd) — Cambodia continues its crackdown against online scam syndicates in 2026, dismantling a telecom fraud park in a southeastern border city near Vietnam and arresting over 2,000 foreigners, the majority of whom are Chinese citizens.

According to Cambodian media reports, the National Police Headquarters' special forces, together with local court prosecutors, deployed 700 law enforcement personnel on Saturday morning (January 31) to conduct a large-scale raid on a telecom scam park in Bavet City, Svay Rieng Province, known as Novancheng Casino. A total of 2,044 foreign nationals were arrested, including 78 women.

Among the suspects arrested, 1,792 were from mainland China, as well as five from Taiwan. There were also 179 from Myanmar, 177 from Vietnam, 36 from India, 30 from Nepal, two from Laos, and one each from Malaysia and Mexico.
This is the largest operation in Cambodia's recent national campaign to combat scam activities.

Cambodian Ministry of Interior spokesperson Dith Sothearak released a statement on Sunday (February 1) saying: "This fully demonstrates that the Cambodian government will never relax its efforts against online scam criminals."
He stressed that Cambodia "is not a haven for criminals, but rather, their hell." 

According to the Khmer Chinese Times, the telecom scam park destroyed in Saturday's operation was operating under the guise of a casino, with 22 buildings inside the park long being used for telecom fraud and other illegal activities.

Besides Svay Rieng Province, authorities also conducted coordinated law enforcement operations in several districts of Sihanoukville Province, intensifying the crackdown on telecom fraud and related transnational criminal activities.

According to reports, Cambodian law enforcement agencies will continue large-scale nationwide raids in the near future.

According to Xinhua, a report released last week by the Cambodian Committee for Combating Online Scams stated that over the past seven months, Cambodia had arrested 5,106 suspects from 23 countries involved in online fraud, of whom 4,534 had already been deported.

In mid-July last year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a nationwide unified cleanup order, mandating a countrywide campaign with coordinated efforts from all levels of law enforcement and armed forces to sweep all scam dens in their jurisdictions, with the aim of completely dismantling scam networks and restoring Cambodia's international reputation.

At the beginning of January this year, Cambodian authorities arrested Chen Zhi, the founder and chairman of the Prince Group, for involvement in telecom fraud and money laundering activities, and deported him to China. This was seen as a major victory in Cambodia's anti-online-fraud operations.

At the time, Cambodian officials emphasized that bringing Chen Zhi to justice did not mean the fight against transnational crime was over. Authorities will continue their crackdown on such criminal activities, especially those using new technologies for illegal acts, including online and telecom fraud.