Police find 25 alleged Taiwanese ‘slaves’ in raid on Calamvale home

POLICE have raided an ­alleged “slave house” as they investigate what they claim is a sophisticated plot by Asian crime gangs to cheat rich Chinese out of their life savings.

Yesterday’s raid on a Calamvale home netted police 25 alleged Taiwanese “slaves” who were forced to work in call centres.

It is the third time police have swooped on a Brisbane rental home suspected of having been used in an illegal call centre in what is known in China as a “post office and police station scam”.

In August and September, houses in Morningside and South Brisbane were raided after one of the alleged “slaves” escaped and raised the alarm to police on August 9.

Police have already charged three men in relation to the other slave houses, one of whom is a dual Taiwanese-Australian citizen.

No charges have yet been laid in relation to the Calamvale home yesterday.

According to documents filed in the Supreme Court last week when one of the alleged slave-keepers applied for bail, 24 Taiwanese men and women were found locked in the Morningside house in August and another 34 were found in the South Brisbane house in September.

The alleged scam involves the “slaves” phoning their Chinese victims.

The “slaves” then say their victims have had broken Chinese money-laundering laws before putting them through to bogus “Chinese police” officers or pointing them to fake government websites that showed forged arrest warrants.

They then siphoned all their cash from bank accounts, purportedly as a “fine” to avoid prosecution.

The “slaves” flew to Brisbane on working holiday visas, and were picked up at the airport and taken to the houses as part of the international scam, police claim.