Interpol Combating Illegal Football Betting in Asia

The international law enforcement agency, Interpol, said this week that more than 400 people have been arrested across Asia following a five-month operation coordinated by Interpol that targeted illegal soccer gambling allegedly controlled by organized crime gangs.

The statement confirmed that police officers across the region had identified and shut down a total of 272 underground gambling dens which were estimated to have handled more than US $680 million worth of illegal bets around the world.

The Interpol executive Director of Police Services, Jean-Michel Louboutin, said, "These are significant results and demonstrate the impact that national law enforcement can have on organized crime in their own country when their efforts are coordinated through the Interpol global network and resources.”

Called SOGA – the code name for soccer gambling - the operation was launched in June 2007 when officers from Interpol’s National Central Bureaus and other law enforcement agencies across China, including Hong Kong and Macao, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam met to exchange intelligence at an operational meeting held at Interpol's liaison office in Bangkok.

Carried out during the months of October and November this year, SOGA was the first coordinated operation to combat illegal soccer gambling and resulted in a total of 423 people being arrested and the seizure of more than $680,000 in cash and assets including computers, bank cards, mobile phones and cars.

A second meeting was held in Dongguan, China, in August and this included a training workshop for officers involved in the operation. It was agreed that each region would take action at the beginning of the football season. "This operation has not only seriously affected the activities of organized crime gangs throughout Asia, but it has also served as an excellent test of national, regional and international police co-operation ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games which will take place in Beijing,' added Louboutin.

Interpol's Criminal Analysis units, both at the Liaison Office in Bangkok and at the General Secretariat in Lyon, will now review the results of the operation to determine whether there are any established or potential links with other international criminals or organized crime groups.

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