Nearly 100 police officers in the northern Vietnamese province of Lao Cai were mobilized to capture a group of 21 Chinese nationals wanted for fraud and property appropriation.

The four women and 17 men were apprehended while in hiding in Lao Cai City, the capital of the namesake province, on Monday, the provincial Department of Police confirmed on Tuesday morning.

Nearly 100 officers under the Lao Cai Province police department and Ministry of Public Security raided multiple houses located in the storage area of Long Rich Company in the Kim Thanh Commercial-Industrial Park.

The Chinese nationals were showing signs of being involved in online scamming activities. They are all wanted by Chinese authorities for fraud and appropriation of property.

The officers also confiscated nearly 300 items including tablets, laptops, cellphones, power banks, and SIM cards.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the Chinese suspects had entered Vietnam illegally.

One of them holds both Chinese and Vietnamese nationalities and was in charge of arranging accommodations for the entire gang.

The location was safeguarded with fences and locked entrances.

They also raised ducks and chickens as a front, as well as assigned one person to the job of keeping watch of the area around the clock.

The one with dual nationality was also responsible for grocery shopping while the other members never left the premises.

On Friday last week, police in northern Mong Cai City in Quang Ninh Province carried out a swoop on a local house on suspicion of illegal activities and caught red-handed a group of 11 Chinese nationals gambling and organizing gambling on Chinese websites.

Mong Cai investigators later found that the foreigners were being wanted by Chinese police after being accused of organizing online gambling.

The detainees were handed over to Chinese authorities on Saturday.

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