Region 5 Police have arrested two Chinese nationals identified as the ringleaders of an online fraud operation that coerced victims into using their bank accounts as money mules — the first case of its kind recorded in the north.
The arrests were announced on the 29th at a press conference led by Region 5 Police Commander Lt Gen Kritthapon Yeesakorn, alongside deputy commanders and Chiang Mai Provincial Police.
The transaction involved a transfer of 97,800 baht to purchase two iPhone 17 Pro Max handsets at a local mall on the 27th of February. Financial investigations traced the funds to a third-party account, money linked to an online fraud case filed in Nakhon Pathom.
On the 19th of April, police received a tip from a mobile phone shop employee that Yang Jie had returned and was attempting to purchase 20 iPhone 17 Pro Max units. Officers accompanied him to a rented property in Nong Phueng subdistrict, where they also found Yang Pengyu and a 24-year-old woman from Lamphun who was Yang Jie’s girlfriend. Officers immediately examined the phones on the premises.
The search turned up photographs of large amounts of cash, gold bars and stacked iPhone 17 Pro Max handsets, along with images of phones being packed into parcels addressed to mobile phone shops across the country. Telegram conversations revealed a coordinated scheme to recruit Thai nationals willing to supply bank accounts for receiving proceeds of online fraud. Yang Jie’s girlfriend was found to have acted as an intermediary in sourcing these mule accounts. Receipts indicated that this pattern of purchasing goods with victims’ funds had occurred multiple times. The suspects are believed to have converted fraud proceeds into gold bars and iPhones, then distributed the handsets through shops in various provinces to launder the money.
Investigators identified two further victims who had filed similar complaints. A 31-year-old man from Saraphi district reported that on the 5th of April he was lured with an offer of online lottery transfer work, then taken to a hotel where he was forced to authenticate transactions via face scan through his own bank account on multiple occasions. His account was subsequently found to have been used to receive funds from fraud victims in Si Sa Ket and Samut Sakhon.
A 20 year old woman from Doi Lo subdistrict reported that on the 28th of March she was recruited for work and directed to a shopping centre in the city, only to be taken to a rented room on the moat. There, her phone was used to receive transfers and she was forced to withdraw 65,000 baht at a mall in Mae Hia and hand the cash over to the Chinese men. Her account was traced to fraud proceeds reported at Pathum Wan Police in Bangkok. Both victims confirmed that Yang Jie and Yang Pengyu were the men who had coerced them.
