BANGKOK, Thailand – Thai immigration police, working in coordination with Japanese authorities, have arrested a suspected senior leader of a major transnational call center scam network linked to operations in Cambodia and human trafficking activities across the region, June 6. The suspect, identified as Sasaki, 39, a Japanese national wanted under an arrest warrant issued by the Nagoya District Court, was apprehended in Bangkok’s Thonglor district after an international manhunt. The operation was conducted by Thailand’s Immigration Bureau under the direction of Pol Gen Thatchai Pitaneelabutr, Deputy National Police Chief and Director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Center, in cooperation with Japanese law enforcement agencies.
According to Japanese investigators, Sasaki allegedly served as a senior commander within a call center fraud syndicate operating from Poipet, Cambodia. The network is accused of targeting Japanese victims in large-scale scams that caused losses amounting to billions of yen. Authorities said the criminal organization maintained links across several countries and that Sasaki had fled to Thailand, where he was living with his family before being located and arrested. The arrest followed intelligence-sharing between Japanese authorities and Thailand’s Anti-Human Trafficking Center, which tasked immigration investigators with tracking the fugitive. Officers eventually identified his whereabouts and carried out the arrest in Bangkok. Thai police said arrangements are underway to extradite the suspect to Japan, where he will face fraud-related charges.
Investigators also uncovered alleged connections between the syndicate and wider transnational criminal networks operating from Cambodia. These groups are suspected of running both call center scam operations and schemes involving the recruitment and coercion of individuals into forced labor, activities that may constitute human trafficking offenses. Police officials described the case as part of an ongoing effort to dismantle regional scam compounds and human trafficking networks that have expanded across Southeast Asia in recent years. Thai authorities reiterated that suppressing call center fraud and human trafficking remains a top government priority and pledged continued cooperation with international law enforcement agencies to pursue key figures behind transnational criminal enterprises.
