During a police special operation at a villa in the Ravai district of Phuket island 5 Russian citizens suspected of organizing an underground casino were detained. Among those arrested are 4 men and 1 woman.
Raid and detention
Phuket police got on the trail of the organizers of illegal gambling after an investigation into the underground gambling business. Operatives located one of the gambling establishments - a fashionable villa in the Salika area.
Having obtained a judicial search warrant, the police conducted a special operation. As a result of the raid, 5 Russian citizens were detained at the villa:
- Alexander Shelgunov, 36
- Vasily Piskunov, 39
- Pavel Mishanov, 38 years old
- Evgeny Vylegzhanin, 23 years old
- Ksenia Savranchuk, 36.
At the time of the police invasion, another poker game was in progress at the villa. A poker table, decks of cards and chips worth more than 350,000 baht were seized from the detainees.
Investigations
During the search at the villa, police found and seized physical evidence of illegal activities:
- records of the underground casino's income and expenses
- Stopwatches for tracking game time
- spare gaming table
- about 500 extra chips worth more than 1.6 million baht
- hard disk with surveillance footage
- Illegally imported hookahs.
The investigation found that one of the detainees was smuggling hookahs. The other four are on trial as organizers of illegal gambling.
The suspects have been taken to Chalong Police Station for further investigation.
Thus, as a result of a targeted operation by Phuket law enforcement agencies, one of the illegal gambling establishments operating on the island was stopped. The arrest of the organizers of the underground casino is a serious blow to the criminal business of illegal gambling.
Author of the article: Ekaterina Antonova
