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Sri Lankan police have arrested 37 Chinese nationals suspected of operating a cyber fraud centre in the capital, Colombo, as part of an ongoing crackdown on foreign-run online scams.
A police spokesman said on Sunday that the suspects, aged between 23 and 44, including one woman, were apprehended following a tip-off.
He added that the individuals had entered the country on tourist visas but were engaged in illegal employment, with two also found to have overstayed their visas.
“They had entered the country on tourist visas and were illegally employed, while two of them had overstayed their visas,” he said.
A police source disclosed that security operatives recovered 35 tablet computers, 147 mobile phones, and 100 SIM cards during a raid on a suspected facility in the Talangama area of Colombo.
The arrests come weeks after authorities detained 152 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese, over a similar cyber fraud operation run from a hotel in the country’s northwest.
In March, immigration officials also arrested 135 Chinese nationals linked to another scam network, all of whom have since been deported.
At the time, China’s embassy in Colombo said it was cooperating with Sri Lankan authorities to curb the involvement of its citizens in such activities, noting that the country’s telecommunications infrastructure and visa policies had made it an attractive base for fraud syndicates.
In 2024, Sri Lankan authorities arrested 230 Chinese nationals and 200 Indian nationals in connection with cybercrime operations across the country.
