PETALING JAYA: Authorities in the Philippines have raided the compound of an alleged offshore gambling operator for alleged human trafficking inside a freeport run by a Malaysian.

The compound was located in the village of Parang in central Luzon, over two hours away from Manila.

The village, located in Bagac in Bataan province, was raided on Thursday where hundreds of fraudulent workers were arrested, including 300 Chinese and Malaysian suspects, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The raiding authorities were the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

Two days earlier, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested 18 Chinese nationals who were running an alleged “scam center” in Paranaque City, which was suspected to be a smaller illegal Pogo (short for a gaming operator luck offshore from the Philippines) that broke off from a larger one.

One of the suspects also tried to bribe agents while they were being transported to the NBI office in Quezon City, offering 300,000 pesos (about RM23,000) for each of the other 17, according to NBI Director Jaime Santiago.

Amid heavy rain over Bagac, the raiders, which included a small team of elite soldiers, entered the 1.5-hectare compound to execute a search warrant on seven buildings of Central One Bataan PH Inc in Centro Park Freeport.

Judge Hermenegildo Dumlao II from Section no. 81 of the Malolos Regional Trial Court (RTC) issued the warrant when it found probable cause to believe that the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act was violated after examining the warrant application of Police Lt. Mark Jayson Turqueza. of CIDG and other witnesses.

Respondents in the alleged trafficking case included four Malaysians, 10 Chinese and one Thai.

Hundreds of Filipinos and foreigners were seen by journalists who were being detained for identification. Central One has 1,500 workers and seven buildings, according to a company human resources officer.

As of early Friday evening, 358 Filipinos and 57 foreigners had been traced, PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio said.

He did not say whether the suspected traffickers were arrested during the raid, but told reporters they found “violations in dealing with offshore gambling operations that are not allowed in the permits of this Pogo.”

Casio pointed to a “notorious online betting platform” called Winbox, which it said had been banned in many countries.

“I saw him in plain sight here at Central One,” he told reporters at the scene during the raid.

“So that’s already a red flag, probable cause for us, that would allow us, would require us, to seek a cyber warrant.”

The search warrant carried out by the attackers allowed them to seize, among other things, “scripts” used to defraud victims, mobile phone SIM cards and cloning devices, internet equipment and routers, identity cards, company documents and money “gain in their scam operations”.

It was not immediately clear what items and how many were seized by the PAOCC.

Central One identifies itself as a business process outsourcing company that was established in 2022, but is “a Pogo operating without a license from Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp),” Casio said.

In June, Bataan Governor Joet Garcia and Bagac Mayor Rommel del Rosario personally inspected the company and found “no irregularities,” according to a local government statement.

The “thorough inspection” followed “speculation among locals” that the complex “could be a Pogo”.

“We conducted this inspection to ensure transparency and to address the concerns of our constituents. Based on our observations, we found no evidence of any illegal activity within the company,” Garcia said.

Casio said local government officials in Bataan could not detect the Pogo operation.

Santiago said during a press conference on Wednesday that the raid on Tuesday followed information received by the NBI Cybercrime Division that at least four condominium apartments in the city were used in fraudulent activities.

Surveillance later revealed that the workstations were being used in investment and cryptocurrency scams, theft of bank account information and illegal gambling.

The NBI applied for a warrant to search, seize and examine computer data in the four condominiums.

Chinese nationals have been caught actively engaging in scams, such as posing as representatives of legitimate businesses to lure victims or promoting rigged gambling sites to ensure bettors always lose.

Cybercrime Division chief Jeremy Lotoc said the NBI noticed that following the anti-Pogo operations, the big Pogos split into smaller groups.

“Their operations would be in either residential units or apartments — again, to avoid law enforcement action,” he said.

The Chinese nationals will be charged with violating the 2012 Cybercrime Prevention Act and the Anti-Financial Account Fraud Act, while the 18th will be charged with corruption of public officials.

Santiago said the agents “played” with the alleged briber who brought the NBI office 1.5 million pesos — the alleged “first of five batches” of payments — for the total bribe offer of 5.1 million pesos.

The 18 Chinese nationals are being held at the NBI and the 57 foreigners taken from Central One will be held at the PAOCC Detention Center in Pasay City while formal charges are being prepared against them, including possible violations of immigration laws.