Interpol arrests 5,100 people involved in illegal gambling rings

Interpol has arrested more than 5,100 people, seizing $59m in illicit proceedings tied to illegal soccer gambling and associated criminal activity, the international police watchdog said in an official press release shared on its website.

Interpol conducts one of its most expansive cracks down on illegal gambling

Interpol conducted raids across 28 countries leading to massive arrests and targeting illegal gambling operators tied to the UEFA 2024 European Football Championship.

The operation, nicknamed SOGA X, helped shut down thousands of illegal gambling websites as well as free people who had become victims of human trafficking by the same nefarious actors.

Hundreds of people were rescued in the Philippines alone, with 650 people freed in a coordinated local raid, among whom were 400 Filipinos and 205 foreign nationals from six countries.

The victims of the illegal operation were forced to work on a number of activities, including illegal gambling sites, as well as help run illegal cyber scams, such as pig-butchering schemes, social engineering, and more.

SOGA X was also able to crack down and bust an illegal gambling ring that was generating around $800,000 in daily transactions, Interpol said on its website. The operation was conducted in Vietnam, where the ring was based.

Another operation part of SOGA X was conducted in Thailand where to locations were raided, suspected to be hosting illegal gambling websites, and assets worth more than $9m were seized from the suspects.

Millions of dollars, thousands of fake IDs

A similar operation went underway in Greece, where seven illegal gambling websites were taken down, along with 60 other illegal websites, Interpol said.

Investigators found out that the ring had used 3,000 fake or "mule" accounts to register at licensed gambling websites in Greece, Cyprus and Spain, and had forged fake IDs or stolen personal information of unwitting victims whose identities were being used to funnel money through those websites.

Interpol noted that this was a money-laundering operation that used stolen funds and legitimate bookmakers to rout them through. Commenting on the success of SOGA X, Interpol Executive Director of Police Services, Stephen Kavanagh, said:

"Illegal gambling can also be closely tied to match-fixing as criminals attempt to manipulate the outcome of sports events to guarantee profits. When illegal gambling is rampant, it becomes easier for corrupt individuals to influence games, so the SOGA X operation also aimed to intercept and interrupt any signal of manipulation. Related investigations are still ongoing."

Interpol has been conducting large-scale operations backed by information sharing by a global force of police officers. Illegal gambling operators, though, have continued to adapt and thrive, but they are increasingly coming under scrutiny.

Image credit: Interpol