Sri Lankan police said on April 3 that officers had raided a suspected transnational online financial scam operation at a hotel in Iranawila, arresting 147 foreign nationals.
Police said the detainees included 133 Chinese nationals, 13 Bangladeshis and one Vietnamese national, all suspected of involvement in organised online financial fraud. Preliminary investigators believe the group had long used the hotel as cover for online scams and related offences and may form part of a transnational scam network.
The report says all suspects have been detained in accordance with the law and investigations are continuing. Police are tracing financial flows, the group’s structure and any links to a wider international criminal network, and say they will continue efforts against transnational criminals using Sri Lanka as a scam base.
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