South Korea police seek warrants to hold 59 scam centre suspects in custody
Police officers escort South Korean deportees suspected of being involved in online scam operations in Cambodia upon their arrival at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, October 18, 2025. (PHoto: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji)
SEOUL: South Korea police said Monday (Oct 20) they were seeking arrest warrants to keep dozens of suspects deported by Cambodia in custody over alleged links to cyberscam operations in the southeast Asian country.
Cambodia repatriated 64 South Korean nationals over the weekend who had been held for their alleged links to "pig butchering" scams in the country.
They were detained by South Korean authorities as soon as they boarded the chartered flight and were escorted off the plane in handcuffs.
Seoul's National Police Agency said Monday it was seeking arrest warrants for 59 of them.
An additional five have been released, officials said.
Seoul has said around a thousand South Koreans are estimated to be among a total of around 200,000 people working in scam operations in Cambodia.
Some have been forced under threat of violence to execute "pig butchering" scams - cryptocurrency investment schemes that build trust with victims over time before stealing their funds.
The repatriation follows public outcry in the country over the torture and killing of a South Korean college student in Cambodia this year, reportedly by a crime ring.
The multibillion-dollar illicit industry has ballooned in Cambodia in recent years, with thousands of people perpetrating online scams, some willingly and others forced by the organised criminal groups running the fraud networks, experts say.
South Korea sent a team to Cambodia last week to discuss cases of fake jobs and scam centres involved in kidnapping dozens of its nationals.
The repatriated individuals have been implicated in various crimes linked to voice phishing, romance scams and so-called "no-show" fraud schemes, Park Sung-joo, head of the National Office of Investigation, told reporters last week.
National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac previously said the detained individuals included both "voluntary and involuntary participants" in scam operations.
