China, Crime, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

The gang had used telephone fraud in the time period between March and July this year, said Lazdins.

The State Police had a received request for legal assistance from China, conducted investigation and operational activities in the past two months that resulted in an operation carried out on Monday.

He said that the police received assistance from the State Border Guard because there was a large number of suspects with unclear country of origin, and there were suspicions that they might be residing in Latvia illegally.

Lazdins said that there is also one Latvian citizen among the detained person. He also said that the police has seized plenty of evidence that will help the Chinese law enforcement institutions.

Also, it is expected that China will demand extradition of some of the detained persons, said Maris Geida, the head of the State Police's International Cooperation Department, adding that, considering the size of the operation, a large crime has been prevented that might have affect lives of very many people.

As reported, the State Police detained 110 people in a major operation that was conducted in Riga and its vicinity on Monday. The operation was conducted also at a property owned by Binders construction firm and housing the company’s mechanization department. Binders representatives said that the company is not using the building at the moment and has let it out to another legal entity.

Binders representative Vita Norina told LETA that on June 26 this year Binders concluded a lease agreement with Sirtaki company which is now using the building in Saulkrasti as its office.