JAKARTA, Indonesia: More than 300 foreign nationals, mainly from Vietnam, were arrested by the Indonesian police on Satyrday, for alleged involvement in banned online gambling.
Police arrested the suspects in an office building in Central Jakarta as part of a crackdown on online gambling and international crime groups.
Online gambling is illegal in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world.
Those arrested included people from several countries: 228 from Vietnam, 57 from China, 13 from Myanmar, 11 from Laos, five from Thailand, and three from Cambodia, according to a police official.
The group had been running the online gambling operation for about two months. Out of the 321 people arrested, 275 are accused of breaking Indonesia's gambling laws, which can lead to up to nine years in prison.
Most of the foreigners knew they were coming to Indonesia to run these gambling activities, and they mainly targeted customers from other countries.
An Interpol official said many such operations are now moving from Cambodia to Indonesia.
This was the second large arrest in two days. On May 8, authorities arrested 210 foreigners on Batam Island near Singapore for allegedly running online investment scams.
