Chief of General Staff of the Falintil-Timor-Leste Defence Force (F-FDTL), Lieutenant General Domingos Raul “Falur Rate Laek”, called on the government to modernise equipment to combat online crime, particularly scamming call centres in Timor-Leste.
Lieutenant General Falur said that scamming call centre activities are a form of organised crime that is difficult to detect because investigations take a long time, and many people become victims before the activities are detected.
“We ask the government to invest in modernising equipment to combat online scamming call centre crimes,” he said.
He said that the government must not only modernise equipment but also invest in human resources to operate modern equipment, making prevention efforts faster and preventing more people from becoming victims.
“Our defence and security institutions still lack modern equipment and the capacity to use modern technology to anticipate these crimes,” Lieutenant General Falur said at JL World, Dili.
He added that although the institutions currently lack modern equipment, he appreciates the results of operations carried out to arrest suspects and initiate legal proceedings in these cases.
Meanwhile, Minister of Interior Francisco da Costa Guterres previously said that modernising equipment for the Timor-Leste National Police (PNTL) is already a government priority, but implementation will take place in phases and cannot be completed all at once.
“We have already started providing some sophisticated equipment to modernise their crime-fighting operations, but we recognise that it is still not sufficient,” he stressed.
He said that the government will continue making efforts to provide the necessary equipment to modernise PNTL operations to combat transnational crime, including scamming call centres in the country.
“We continue to encourage police officers to work according to command orders to combat organised crime with the equipment and capacity they currently have,” Minister Guterres said at the Government Palace.
In addition, he said that the government has been cooperating with partners to support training on identifying organised crime in Timor-Leste.
