Police from Laos have handed over 494 telecom fraud suspects to Chinese authorities, marking a new law enforcement effort against such crime between the two countries, the Ministry of Public Security said on Friday.

Since the beginning of this year, with intensified crackdowns on scams in Cambodia, some fraud dens and scammers moved to Laos. Under the China-Laos police cooperation agreement, a special operation against telecom fraud was recently carried out, with 494 suspects captured and transferred to China at the Mohan port in Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province, according to the ministry.

It revealed that public security organs in Sichuan province and Chongqing have been ordered to deal with these suspects and conduct following investigations.

An official with the ministry said that Chinese police will continue to deepen law enforcement cooperation with relevant countries, improve joint crackdown mechanisms, and step up efforts to dismantle fraud dens, capture financial backers, and repatriate suspects. Such efforts aim to squeeze the space for fraud and curb the high incidence of cross-border telecom fraud crimes.