Three Vietnamese loan sharks were arrested for allegedly extorting their countrymen with threats to remotely lock their phones.

The trio reportedly operated an illegal lending business out of a residence in the Lat Krabang district of Bangkok.

Police following a tip-off raided the home and detained the suspects, identified as Ngo Van Long, 25, Hoang Trung Tran, 21, and Dang Van Ngan, 19, who were found working on computers on the second floor.

Authorities said the group published ads on Facebook to lure Vietnamese nationals into debt traps, charging exorbitant rates of up to 45 per cent for loans. They allegedly installed iCloud accounts on the victims' phones and threatened to lock delinquent clients out if they failed to pay on time.

Officers also seized the computers and found that the loan sharks had handled more than 2.2 billion VND (around 63,000 GBP) in transactions. The payments were wired to a bank in Vietnam, where such loan operations are illegal.

Police Lieutenant General Saksira Pueak-am, Commissioner of the Tourist Police Bureau, said: 'Mr. Ngo Van Long admitted he had been working for two months with a monthly salary of 20,000 baht. He said he recruited Mr. Hoang Trung Tran, who had been on the job for about a month, earning between 10,000 to 20,000 baht.

'Mr. Dang Van Ngan, also recruited by Ngo, had been working for two months on a 10,000 baht salary. All three were initially detained and handed over to Rom Klao Police for further legal action.'