The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said they assisted in a joint international effort that cracked what it says might be the largest illegal online gambling network ever established.
CIB officials announced they raided several locations in Taiwan suspected to have connections with the gambling opertaion, which is based in China, but is thought to have had operatives in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand.
A 37-year–old Taiwanese man named Huang Yu-jui (黃友瑞) was arrested, police said.
Police said Huang is suspected of providing connections for Taiwanese gamblers and also of laundering some of the profits of the people behind the online gambling platform, known as the “25U Online Gambling Network.”
In a series of operations — starting last year and concluding this month — the national police agencies of Taiwan, China, and Thailand worked together to oversee the arrests of more than 1,000 people, the majority of whom are Chinese.
CIB officials said the Chinese Ministry of Public Security contacted the bureau when its investigators discovered that a substantial proportion of the profits from the syndicate were funneled to Taiwan to be laundered.
Although most of the syndicate’s activities were in China, including Hong Kong, police said the group’s operations were “trans national,” since Internet servers were rented in Thailand and Taiwan to circumvent China’s Internet restrictions.
A CIB official said the network rented servers from Taiwan IDC, a data center and Internet business service company based in Taipei.
Thai authorities said they had arrested seven Chinese nationals in Thailand, with most of them employed by the organization as computer programmers or network server engineers.
Chinese authorities said the syndicate was led by two Chinese based in Guangdong Province’s Shantou City, one surnamed Zhang (張) and the other Wen (溫).
Under the 25U main platform, Zhang and Wen built up more than 200 subsidiary Web sites, which they rented out to individual operators who paid a monthly fee to run their own online gambling operations.
Chinese media outlets reported that each Web site was rented out for 70,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan (US$11,290 to US$16,140) per month, allowing Zhang and Wen to reap big profits.
The reports said hundreds of thousands of Chinese gamblers were placing bets on the membership-based gambling Web sites, with bets on the 25U network Web sites as a whole totaling about NT$2 trillion (US$64 billion) per month. Besides betting on the results of China’s state lottery, visitors to the Web sites could also play video poker, slot machines, bet on sports and link up to casinos in Macau.
Chinese police earlier this month said they arrested 1,063 people associated with the 25U network, and froze bank accounts belonging to Zhang and Wen.
The bank accounts contained about 330 million yuan, Xinhua news agency reported.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS