Fourteen hundred people were arrested in an Interpol-coordinated anti-gambling operation in 28 countries during the European Football Championship in June and July, the international police organization announced.
The actions carried out in Asia and Europe also made it possible to seize 7.9 million dollars (about 6.7 million euros), as well as computers and mobile phones connected to gambling that totaled 465 million dollars (about 390 million euros).
“Undercover gambling reports significant sums to organized crime networks and is often linked to money laundering and corruption,” Interpol said in a statement.
Hong Kong police detained 800 suspects, including the alleged head of a gambling ring controlled by the Chinese mafia, seizing $ 2.7 million and files with hundreds of millions of bets.
In Italy, some 280 betting offices were controlled during the competition, with fines for illegal activities.
This eighth edition of the SOGA operation («soccer gambling», «football betting in English) affected Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia , Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
Since they began, these operations have made it possible to arrest 19,100 suspects, seize $ 63 million and close more than 4,000 offices or platforms that accumulated $ 7.3 billion of clandestine gambling. AFP (HN)