Sri Lanka has handed 125 telecom fraud suspects back to China in a joint law enforcement operation, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security said in a statement released through its official WeChat account on Thursday.
According to the ministry, Sri Lankan police had previously apprehended the suspects during a series of raids targeting telecom and cyber-fraud dens, and on March 29 officers from Central China’s Hubei Province — supported by the Chinese Embassy in Colombo — escorted the group back to the mainland. Hubei public security authorities are now leading the investigation.
Chinese officials said the repatriation reflected a “notable trend” of telecom fraud networks relocating to Sri Lanka from other parts of Asia, and pledged to “continue to expand international law enforcement cooperation” and maintain a tough stance on transnational crime. The statement was carried locally by Ada Derana and reported by the Global Times in Beijing.
The operation follows the March 2026 arrest of more than 150 foreign nationals, most of them Chinese, in a large cyber-scam compound in Chilaw — the single largest bust to date in Sri Lanka’s growing crackdown on foreign-run online fraud rings. Since late last year, Sri Lankan police have dismantled multiple fraud dens in Colombo and the Western Province, and Chinese authorities have publicly thanked Colombo for its cooperation.
Beijing has been pressing partner governments across South and South-east Asia to repatriate Chinese nationals involved in so-called “pig-butchering” investment scams, romance frauds and fake call-centre operations that target victims inside China. Sri Lanka’s decision to hand over a group of this size marks one of the largest single transfers yet under the bilateral enforcement framework.
