A Thai police raid on a double-storey rented house in Prawet district in Bangkok on Thursday night netted 10 Malaysian suspects of a highly-wanted cross-border “Macau Scam” syndicate.

The syndicate used Thailand as its base of operation but preyed mainly on unsuspecting Malaysians in their home country.

“The syndicate is masterminded by Malaysians and Taiwanese. The raid was a culmination of a joint operation by Thai and Malaysian police,” deputy head of Thailand's Tourist Police Maj Gen Surachet Hakpal said Friday.

He said the syndicate was high on the wanted list of Malaysian police and Thursday night’s success was proof of the prevailing close cooperation between the two police forces.

Surachet, nicknamed “Big Joke” in the Thai media for his pleasant nature, said the syndicate had been renting the house over the past four months for about Baht 90,000 (RM11,250) a month.

The Malaysian men rarely ventured out of the house during the four months, which had raised alarm among their neighbours, said the police officer.

“They operate 24 hours a day,” he said, adding that the police had gathered an intelligence dossier on the syndicate.

The syndicate, according to him, was about to move to another place when the police raided the premises.

He also said that the Malaysian men tried to flee when the police party raided the house but their attempt failed as all access out of the house had been blocked by the alert policemen.

“There was panic when the police knocked on the door of the house and they tried to flee but our men were ready,” he said.

-- Bernama