Police State Myanmar-Cambodia Online Gambling Syndicate Beginning to Shift to Indonesia

The National Central Bureau (NCB) Interpol of the International Relations Division of the Indonesian National Police (Polri) has revealed that Indonesia is now beginning to become a central operational destination for online crime syndicates in the Indochina and Southeast Asia regions. This was stated by the Deputy Head of NCB Interpol Polri, Brigadier General Untung Widyatmoko, during a press conference on the raid of an online gambling syndicate office in the Hayam Wuruk area, West Jakarta, on Sunday (9/5). “Today’s developments show that the pattern of shifting transnational crimes is beginning to move to Indonesia,” Untung said in his presentation. According to him, the raid on the online gambling syndicate office involving 321 foreign nationals is a continuation of the uncovering of the same syndicate in Batam, Riau Islands, some time ago. Initially, Untung said, the operational bases of online crime syndicates were in other Southeast Asian regions, such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The crimes not only include online gambling but also love scams and online investments. “After being cracked down, there has been a shift to Indonesia, which we have anticipated and predicted,” he said. Previously, Untung said, the online crime syndicates had also been uncovered in several cities outside Jakarta. Besides Batam, there were also in Surabaya, Denpasar, Surakarta, Yogyakarta, Sukabumi, and Bogor. Nevertheless, Untung revealed that they do not yet have precise data. According to him, those coming to Indonesia are generally invited by previous syndicate members. They come using tourist visas, in addition to the visa-free visit facilities. Moreover, Indonesia has recently been continuously promoting tourism. However, not only Indonesia, there are also other countries that become destinations, such as South Africa to the United Arab Emirates. “There are visa-free visit facilities. We are aware that, on one side, our government also needs an increase in tourism numbers. That cannot be denied. We need tourist visits to Indonesia. But on the other side, this is like two sides of a coin,” he said.