About 32 people, suspected of being involved in a telecom fraud scam, have been arrested in Cambodia.
17 of them have been deported to China, arriving in Chengdu early on Thursday.
The deportation order was made after the suspects were arrested last week in raids on three apartments, coordinated by Chinese and Cambodian police.
The suspects are believed to be linked to over 300 scam cases involving more than 1.49 million US dollars.
The second group of people will be deported from Siem Reap airport to Henan Province on Saturday.
The second deportation was delayed due to a lack of flights from Cambodia to China, according to Cambodian paper, Khmer Times.
Another 74 people were arrested on July 1 by Chinese and Cambodian police during raids on several locations in Phnom Penh.
Cambodia deported the suspects to China on July 6.
The suspects, masquerading as court or police officials, called people telling them their personal information had been stolen and encouraged them to transfer money to a so-called “safe account”.
China has been cooperating with several countries and regions to crack down on telecom fraud.
Last year, Chinese police dispatched teams to Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia and Spain, bringing back 561 suspects.
Chinese police took down 7,682 fraud groups and investigated 83,000 telecoms fraud cases in 2016, according to official figures. (cgtn)