THE Fiji Police Force played a part in the capture of 482 Asians in China and Taiwan last week alleged to be involved in a transnational telecommunications racket worth $21.4 million.
Police spokeswoman Ana Naisoro confirmed detectives from China were in the country earlier this month to conduct investigations in relation to the multi-million dollar scam.
"With the assistance of our Criminal Investigation Department counterparts the Chinese detectives conducted their investigations in Suva and moved down to the west. The team left the country yesterday on their way back to China," Ms Naisoro said.
According to news agencies in Beijing, law enforcement authorities from Taiwan engaged the services of their counterparts from six countries — Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Fiji to gather evidence before moving in to seize the 482 suspects from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. It was reported that call centres were established in Fiji as part of the racket and money was extorted from unsuspecting individuals in Asia.
The China Daily quoted deputy director of CID with the Taiwan Police Yang Dong as having said the "operation was a major success in international judicial co-operation".
The newspaper also reported that of the 482 suspects, 177 were from the Chinese mainland, 286 from Taiwan and 19 from Thailand and Myanmar.
The suspects pretended to be staff from an anti-money laundering team and asked finance managers to transfer funds to a safe account.
Once the money was deposited and no further communication was received finance companies raised the alarm which resulted in an investigation involving 70 police officers.
The officers were divided into teams and sent to the six countries, including Fiji, where the suspects had set up operations.