Indonesia returns over 140 suspects in big telecom fraud

Indonesia returned 143 Chinese suspected of telecom fraud to the Chinese police in Jakarta on Thursday in what was considered major progress in shared efforts to crack down on overseas scams.

The suspects, including 22 from China's Taiwan, were handed over and departed from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on two flights, The Associated Press quoted Indonesia's immigration office spokesman Agung Sampurno as saying.

The suspects, most of whom are men, were detained in a weekend raid of houses in Jakarta, Surabaya and Bali after a tip from Chinese officials, local police said. The operation made around 6 trillion rupiahs ($450 million) since it started at the end of 2016, AFP reported.