Thai police raided a major loan shark network that distributed around 4 billion baht of loans in the country, Agence France-Presse reported Dec. 25, citing the Ministry of Justice.

Authorities have frozen 28 bank accounts and 14 safes and arrested the gang's IT chief as part of the raid.

The network, which consists of 86 branches and 2,000 members, charges up to 300% interest annually to its borrowers. Authorities also believe that the network received helped from around 1,000 state officials in some capacity.

As of Dec. 23, US$1 was equivalent to 35.97 Thai baht.