Around 11 a.m. on the 18th, a fleet of police cars pulled up and blocked the entrance to a rented house in Houaxae village, located in Champasak province’s Bachiang district. Acting on tips from vigilant local residents, provincial police from the foreigner management section—alongside district and village administrative officers—staged a sudden raid, busting a cybercrime den right on the spot.
All 22 Chinese nationals inside, including one woman, were caught and taken into custody.
The rooms were packed with equipment from wall to wall. Officers seized 49 desktop monitors, 27 computer towers, a staggering pile of 237 smartphones, and seven heavy-duty voltage stabilizers and power supply units. It was a classic illegal setup: from the outside, the house looked quiet, curtains drawn tight against the tropical heat and motorbike exhaust on the street. Inside, heavy-duty air conditioners roared round the clock to cool down racks of humming electronics running scams in the shadows.
Local police said the investigation is ongoing. Authorities have not yet released details on the roles played by those detained—such as who lured victims, who ran the operations, what specific scams were used, or how much money was stolen.
Neighbors had long watched these unfamiliar faces slipping in and out of the house, but it wasn't until police cruisers pulled into the village that everyone realized another cybercrime hideout had just been blown wide open.
