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ASIAN police are planning a second crackdown on illegal football betting in an operation coordinated by Interpol after hundreds of gambling dens were shut down last year, officers said on Wednesday.
Interpol, the global police organisation, said at a conference that it hopes the success of Operation Soga, which targeted gambling last October, will serve as a model for future cooperation between Interpol and police in the region.
'We've already started planning for the second phase of Soga,' Interpol's secretary general, Ronald Noble, said in opening remarks to the agency's Global Conference on Asian Organised Crime.
He said results of the first crackdown were 'staggering' but told reporters more work was needed.
'It's like cutting off the head of a Hydra,' he said.
The 266 raids last October in Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia netted 432 arrests and more than 680,000 US dollars (S$976,406) in suspected crime proceeds, Singapore Police Commissioner Khoo Boon Hui said.
Noble said the 272 gambling dens that were dismantled handled an estimated 680 million dollars in illegal bets worldwide.
'Operation Soga demonstrated what can be achieved by police in our member countries working side-by-side with a common goal,' Mr Noble said.
'We're hoping that we can bring in more countries in the second phase.'
Illegal football betting is causing increasing concern after reports last month that dozens of European matches may have been fixed.
'We know that in Hong Kong, Singapore or elsewhere in Asia you might have a single bet of 10 million dollars on a match ending 4-4,' European football chief Michel Platini said at the time.
'We do know that some teams were approached by people,' he told Britain's Sunday Times.
Interpol officials would not give details of the second phase, including when it would begin.
But they said Soga's success should lead to other cooperative operations, not only against illegal gambling.
Interpol, in conjunction with local police, also wants to launch an operation against human trafficking and to investigate crime gangs in the Pacific islands, said senior official Emmanuel Leclaire. -- AFP
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