Interpol illegal gambling investigation leads to 5,100 arrests

Police from 28 countries made 5,100 arrests in a massive Interpol-led international illegal football gambling crackdown.

Code-named Operation SOGA X, the action resulted in $59m of criminal proceeds being confiscated across the world.

The operation was conducted between June and July 2024, and aimed to tackle illegal online football gambling during the UEFA European Football Championship.

Stephen Kavanagh, Interpol executive director of police services, said: “Organised crime networks reap huge profits from illegal gambling, which is often intertwined with corruption, human trafficking, and money laundering.

“The successes of Operation SOGA X would not have been achieved without global information sharing and significant efforts by law enforcement authorities on the ground.”

Alongside shutting down tens of thousands of illegal websites, SOGA X investigations also led to the exposure of money laundering syndicates and the rescue of trafficked workers.

Interpol highlighted one significant case in the Philippines that saw over 650 human trafficking victims liberated from a location used to conduct online gambling and scam operations.

While the international police organisation did not specify, this could have been the August POGO raid in Pasay City’s Rivendell Gaming Corp offices.

News of horrific scenes in raided POGOs, alongside a row involving a small town mayor accused of being a Chinese secret agent, led to the government announcing a blanket ban on the offshore gambling platforms.

Interpol said its Operational Support Team aided Philippines authorities on the ground and shared expertise in extracting and analysing forensic evidence from seized devices.

Interpol smashes online betting rings

Another important side of the clampdown involved combating large-scale illegal betting sites and complex financial crime schemes.

One example from Vietnam saw the authorities dismantle a sophisticated gambling ring generating $800,000 in daily transactions.

The syndicated, powered servers in multiple countries, used a network of bank accounts and e-wallets to receive illegal gambling bets and distribute payouts.

Meanwhile in Thailand, police raided two locations hosting major illegal betting websites, leading to the arrest of the ringleaders for gambling and money laundering offences.

Across the world in Greece, authorities took down an illegal betting ring that used mule accounts to place bets on sports events.

The organised crime group used VPNs to bypass internet blocks in Greece and operated at least seven illegal gambling sites.

The group managed 3,000 fake and mule user accounts on legal gambling websites in Greece, Cyprus and Spain.

The accounts, which had been created using stolen identity cards and forged documents, used e-wallets to facilitate illegal activities.

The goal of this scheme is to break down large sums of money into smaller amounts less detectable by law enforcement and financial institutions, as well as facilitate money laundering.

Interpol said related investigations remain ongoing.

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