Cyber Police Arrest VAR999 Admin During Border SIMBOX Probe
SA KAEO —8 October 2026, Cyber police arrested an online gambling website administrator at his desk while conducting a search for SIMBOX equipment in Aranyaprathet district. Pol Lt Gen Thinkorn Rangmat, commissioner of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, ordered Pol Maj Gen Sarayut Junwan, commander of Cyber Crime Division 2, along with other officers and […]
On October 8, 2026, cyber police executed a search warrant at a house in Moo 13, Phan Suek subdistrict, Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo, looking for SIMBOX equipment. During the search, they arrested Woradet, a 26-year-old administrator of the VAR999 gambling website, while he was using a computer to promote the site. Police seized one computer and nine mobile phones.
Woradet told investigators he had been recruited about a year earlier via Telegram by an unidentified person and was paid 20,000 baht per month for managing the gambling site. The investigation began after cyber police received reports that a group had installed signal transmission equipment—known as SIMBOX devices—to control GSM gateways in the Thai-Cambodian border area of Aranyaprathet. Such devices can be used by call‑center gangs to route calls and deceive the public.
Although no SIMBOX equipment was found at the premises, police learned it had been moved out of the area shortly before the raid in an apparent attempt to evade detection. Woradet admitted during questioning that he was responsible for recruiting customers into LINE groups for foreign football betting, sending links to the VAR999 website in exchange for his monthly salary from a Telegram account holder.
He was charged with advertising or soliciting unauthorized foreign football betting through electronic media. The suspect and the seized evidence were taken into custody for further legal proceedings, while investigators continue to trace both the gambling operation and the displaced SIMBOX equipment to identify additional participants and beneficiaries.
