Nearly 500 held across Asia over telecom scam

A total of 482 people, 177 were from the Chinese mainland and 286 were from Taiwan, were arrested by law enforcement officials from China and Taiwan yesterday with the help of police in six countries, the Ministry of Public Security said.

The other 19 suspects are from Thailand and Myanmar, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The ministry said the suspects have allegedly defrauded their Chinese victims of a total of 73 million yuan (USD 11.5 million).

These suspects spread throughout the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, as well as six other countries - Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Fiji - and established money-laundering dens in Taiwan and Thailand, it said.

One-hundred-twenty-six suspects from the Chinese mainland were escorted from Thailand and Malaysia to China today, and they will be interrogated further, according to the ministry.

Moreover, 262 of the total 286 Taiwanese suspects have been escorted back to Taiwan.

The ministry launched the investigation in November 2011, and invited police from Taiwan to work out effective solutions.

Early this May, the ministry sent six groups composed of 70 Chinese police officers to the six countries to further investigate.