Sri Lanka Police arrested 60 foreign nationals, including Vietnamese citizens, during a raid on a building in Kollupitiya on Wednesday afternoon over suspected involvement in computer-related crimes, NewsFirst reported.
Officers from Kollupitiya Police carried out the operation after gathering evidence that the group was running cybercrime activity from the premises. Police said all 60 suspects were taken into custody at the scene; further investigations are ongoing and charges have not yet been filed.
The raid extends a fast-widening enforcement campaign into central Colombo. In the past three days police arrested 157 suspects of nine nationalities in Rajagiriya, Medawelikada Road and Talangama, with 120 remanded to custody and 37 Chinese nationals deported on Monday night. The Vietnamese share of today’s group is notable; earlier raids in this cluster predominantly involved Chinese nationals.
NewsFirst’s investigation published Tuesday traced the influx to organised online-fraud syndicates previously based in Myanmar’s Myawaddy region, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, which appear to be relocating operations to Sri Lanka. Recruitment patterns visible on Sri Lankan job sites since early 2024 — high salaries above Rs. 100,000 with minimal skill requirements — closely resemble the templates used by those overseas syndicates.
Earlier this year, nine Chinese nationals were arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport on April 14 carrying Rs. 24 million worth of equipment intended for computer-based fraud, and BIA customs separately seized 84 phones from a single Chinese passenger.
Source: NewsFirst.
