Have Foreign Cybercrime Syndicates Entered Sri Lanka?

COLOMBO (News 1st); Thirty-seven Chinese nationals arrested for cybercrime-related activities were deported from Sri Lanka last night (4) after being found in violation of immigration laws, raising fresh concerns over the possible infiltration of foreign cybercrime syndicates into the country.

Airport authorities confirmed that the deported individuals had been held at the Welisara Detention Centre before being removed from Sri Lanka. The deportations come amid a series of arrests, raids, and intelligence findings indicating an expanding cybercrime footprint involving foreign nationals.

The developments prompt a critical question: are organised cybercrime networks, previously active in countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates, now shifting operations to Sri Lanka?

Over the past few years, international law enforcement agencies have dismantled large-scale cybercrime operations run primarily by Chinese criminal syndicates across Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

In Myanmar, security forces earlier raided cybercrime compounds operating along the Thai border in the Myawaddy region, freeing a large number of victims, including Sri Lankan nationals, who had been trafficked and forcibly employed in online fraud operations.

Similar cybercrime hubs previously operated in Dubai and Ajman in the United Arab Emirates.

Throughout 2024, UAE authorities carried out multiple crackdowns, resulting in the arrest and deportation of hundreds involved in cyber fraud. However, escalating geopolitical tensions and increased enforcement have disrupted these networks, forcing criminal syndicates to seek alternative bases of operation.

Investigations previously revealed that many of these cybercrime centres were run by organised Chinese criminal groups.

Since early 2024, several online job advertisements posted on Sri Lankan employment websites have drawn scrutiny.

These listings offered unusually high salaries, often exceeding Rs. 100,000, with minimal qualifications.

The requirements typically mentioned only basic computer skills and typing speed, stating that even Ordinary Level qualifications were sufficient.

Investigators note these advertisements closely resemble recruitment tactics used by cybercrime syndicates operating in Myanmar and Dubai, which targeted young people under the guise of IT-related employment.

This resemblance has heightened suspicions that similar operations may now be taking root locally.

A Survivor’s Warning:

A Sri Lankan woman rescued from a cybercrime operation in Myanmar shared her experience, warning of the dangers such schemes pose.

“We didn’t come back on our own, we were rescued,” she said. “At first, conditions seemed normal. Later, salaries stopped, punishments began, and people were tortured, electrocution, beatings, confinement. If something like this has started in Sri Lanka, it is deeply concerning. At first, they treat workers well, but later they become prisoners in their own country, unpaid and trapped.”

She warned that Sri Lankan youth, with their technological adaptability, could be exploited to scale such criminal operations further if preventive action is not taken.

Raids, Arrests, and Deportations:

Police confirmed that 157 suspects connected to cybercrime were arrested over the past three days. Of these, 120 suspects were remanded following their arrest along Rajagiriya and Medawelikada Road.

The suspects include nationals from nine countries, including China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Police revealed that the group had rented multiple floors of a residential building to carry out cyber financial crimes. In a separate raid conducted by the Walana Anti-Corruption Task Force in Talangama, 37 Chinese nationals were arrested on suspicion of cybercrime and later remanded until the 8th of this month by the Kaduwela Magistrate’s Court.

Earlier, on the 14th of last month, nine Chinese nationals were arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport while attempting to illegally bring in electronic communication equipment valued at Rs. 24 million. Airport Customs stated the devices were intended for computer-based financial fraud.

Just days before that, eight Chinese and Vietnamese nationals were arrested in the Godakanda area of Poddala for allegedly carrying out online fraud operations.

An Emerging Threat:

Photographic evidence received recently suggested a suspected cybercrime centre operating in the Battaramulla area, involving both Sri Lankan and foreign nationals.

When a News First team visited the location, the occupants had already vacated the premises.