ahh Cambodia
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Before Ko found himself kidnapped, beaten and handcuffed to a bed in a Sihanoukville casino, with survival contingent on delivering his armed captors $120,000 in the next 12 days, the 53-year-old Taiwanese national had responded to a Facebook ad promising a “customer service” job last year, he recalled.

After being sold multiple times over the past year, Ko had been freed in March only to quickly become entrapped again inside the newly licensed Xing Tian Di casino owned by well-connected businessman Rithy Raksmei’s K99 Group.

“I wasn’t afraid they would kill me there because I knew they wanted the money,” Ko told CamboJA over the phone Wednesday from a Sihanoukville immigration center after his rescue. He requested only his surname be published for his safety.

The details of Ko’s kidnapping and rescue were publicly reported by National Police on April 24. His case, one of several reported kidnapping and extortion cases in the past six weeks, comes despite a government-touted crackdown on scam operations and human trafficking in Sihanoukville. But Ko’s account of his captivity over the past year suggests that criminal activity has far from ceased in Sihanoukville, where reports of suspicious deaths, violence and scam rings continue to emerge.

Full story: https://cambojanews.com/beaten-handcuff ... noukville/

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Tue May 02, 2023 2:25 pm

The details of Ko’s kidnapping and rescue were publicly reported by National Police on April 24. His case, one of several reported kidnapping and extortion cases in the past six weeks, comes despite a government-touted crackdown on scam operations and human trafficking in Sihanoukville. But Ko’s account of his captivity over the past year suggests that criminal activity has far from ceased in Sihanoukville, where reports of suspicious deaths, violence and scam rings continue to emerge.

Interesting phrasing

Somebody without a marked bias against the Khmer establishment might also write something like "Ko's KIdnapping was cracked thanks to a government touted crackdown on scam operations and human trafficking in Sihanoukville."