Police Raid Cambodian Online Gambling Headquarters in Medan, 19 People Arrested

The North Sumatra Provincial Police’s Cyber Crime Directorate has uncovered an online gambling practice from a Cambodian network operating from an apartment on Jalan Palang Merah in Medan City. In the revelation, police arrested 19 suspects from two main crime scenes.

Director of Cyber Crime at North Sumatra Provincial Police, Commissioner Pol Bayu Wicaksono, stated that the uncovering was divided into two cases based on police reports handled by investigators.

From the developments, the suspects were known to conduct online gambling promotion and operational activities from several rooms in the same apartment.

“We need to convey that the uncovering of this case is divided into two cases. From this uncovering, a total of 19 suspects have been secured and detained,” said Bayu at the North Sumatra Provincial Police, Thursday (26/3).

He mentioned that at the first location, namely Room 705 of the Royal Mediterranean Apartment, police arrested 8 suspects. They had various roles, from leader, OTP and link checking, telemarketing, to content operators or endorsers.

“The suspect with initials TL had the most dominant role at the first location. TL had a higher role compared to the other 7 people. So, at this first crime scene, the leader is Mr TL,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the second crime scene, namely Room 601 and Room 1005, police arrested 11 suspects. From the investigation results, the main role at this location was held by the suspect with initials BH, who was referred to as the leader or supervisor as well as the party who recruited the other perpetrators.

“From these two crime scenes, the leader is the same and has admitted that besides being the leader, he also recruited other perpetrators, namely with initials BH,” said Bayu.

The activity had been running for approximately two years. Although the suspects’ activities were quite secretive and used technological support to obscure their activities, the police finally succeeded in uncovering the network thanks to public information and intensive investigations.

“Case developments are still ongoing to delve into the possibility of broader network involvement, including possible relations with foreign networks or other parties suspected of supporting the online gambling operations,” he explained.