International
Thailand Emerges as Key Transit Route as Scam Networks Relocate to Malaysia
PHNOM PENH, Sept. 17, 2026: Thai highway police have uncovered a smuggling pipeline moving foreign scam workers through Thailand into Malaysia, revealing the kingdom's role as a corridor for criminal networks relocating across Southeast Asia, according to the Bangkok Post.
Pol Maj Gen Pornsak Laorujiralai, commander of the Highway Police, said five arrests since February had netted 26 suspects — 20 illegal Chinese migrants and six Thais — in a pattern he described as criminals "sneaking into Thailand and travelling through the South to Malaysia to set up a new base."
The cases trace a consistent route through Thai territory. In February, officers stopped two vehicles in Chumphon and found eight Chinese nationals carrying about 150 mobile phones and no travel documents. Two Thai drivers said they had been paid 30,000 baht to move the group from Bangkok's Lat Krabang district to Hat Yai, near the Malaysian border.
In late June, four Chinese men were arrested on an interprovincial bus in Chumphon after buying tickets under other people's names. A month later, police detained a Chinese national in Surat Thani who was wanted for fraud in Hsinchu City, Taiwan.
In August, a van with drawn curtains was stopped carrying five Chinese men and two Thais; two of the Chinese suspects were wanted for online scams in China. On Tuesday, police arrested the suspect named in the February case, identified as Prasopchoke, while driving two illegal Chinese migrants whose phones contained videos of scam workers being beaten with baseball bats and electric batons.
Pol Maj Gen Pornsak warned Thai traffickers they could face charges of participating in transnational criminal organisations.
Many of those bound for Malaysia are believed to be heading to Forest City, the multi-billion-dollar megaproject in southern Johor backed by Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings, where an estimated 17,000 of 26,000 residential units remain empty. Malaysian police raided 32 premises hosting scam operations there in late July, arresting 335 people — 309 of them Chinese nationals.
The findings place Thailand at the centre of the region's scam relocation problem, with Thai territory functioning as the principal overland route for networks seeking new bases.
Source: Bangkok Post
Globe.
Reported by The Khmer Today