"No Escape: Police Repatriate 73 Fugitives from Southeast Asia"

Mass Repatriation: 42 from Cambodia, 31 from the Philippines

From Scam Crimes to Illegal Online Gambling Operations

The police have repatriated a large number of criminals, including members of scam organizations, who had fled to Southeast Asian countries.

The National Police Agency announced on April 27 that, from February 26 to April 22, it repatriated 73 Korean nationals who committed large-scale online scams and other crimes based in Cambodia or the Philippines, and that 69 of them have been formally arrested and referred for prosecution. With the repatriation of a significant number of overseas-based criminal organization members, the authorities plan to intensify their investigation into related cases.

Police are on standby to repatriate Korean criminal gang members who committed crimes such as scams and hostage robbery at Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia in January this year. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

This repatriation was made possible by the effective organic cooperation system established by the cross-government Transnational Crime Special Response Task Force, which includes the National Police Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the National Intelligence Service. In particular, the authorities highlighted that the results were achieved through the close partnership and cooperation among local police, immigration authorities, and diplomatic missions in Cambodia and the Philippines. This enabled the seamless connection of the process from local apprehension to detention and repatriation.

In Cambodia, 42 scam organization members who were apprehended locally were repatriated through operations led by the Korea task force. Among them were 24 members who impersonated prosecutors and the Financial Supervisory Service through voice phishing methods, swindling 51.7 billion won from 368 victims and committing sexual exploitation crimes against multiple women, as well as 14 members who, after building rapport through dating apps, lured 53 victims into virtual asset investments and defrauded them out of 2.3 billion won. The police immediately detained and referred 41 individuals to prosecution upon repatriation, while an arrest warrant has also been issued for the remaining individual.

Equally significant results were achieved in the Philippines. All 31 individuals repatriated from the Philippines were on the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) wanted list. These included 21 offenders involved in economic crimes such as voice phishing and fraud, and 10 involved in cybercrimes such as operating illegal gambling establishments. Among them was a fugitive who had been on the run since 2011 and was repatriated after 15 years. Specifically, the repatriated group included three criminal organization members who operated an illegal online gambling site worth 5.9 trillion won since 2014, three ringleaders who, between 2022 and 2024, falsified vehicle performance records of accident-damaged cars to disguise them as normal vehicles and swindled 12 billion won in auto loan payments from financial institutions, and one ringleader who, after hacking a capital site server in 2011, stole the personal information of 1.75 million people and extorted 100 million won.

According to the police, most of the repatriated members were part of criminal organizations based overseas and were found to have committed various crimes, including voice phishing, romance scams, and operating illegal online gambling sites. In some cases, there were hundreds of victims and the damage amounted to tens of billions of won, clearly demonstrating the transnational nature of these crimes, according to investigators.

With online scam crimes based in Southeast Asia on the rise, this case—where local apprehensions swiftly led to repatriation—is expected to set a new standard for international investigative cooperation. A National Police Agency official emphasized, "We will fundamentally eliminate the perception that fleeing overseas allows one to evade investigation."

Park Junseong, the acting director of the International Police Cooperation Bureau at the National Police Agency, stated, "We will relentlessly pursue and ensure the repatriation of transnational criminals who cross borders," adding, "We will further strengthen crackdowns and international cooperation against overseas-based criminal organizations."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.