Notorious Online Scam Center Linked with China-based Mafia Raided

The Burmese military claims it has seized among the most infamous fraud facilities on the frontier with Thailand, as it retakes key territory lost in the ongoing domestic strife.

KK Park, south of the boundary community of Myawaddy, has been linked with digital deception, financial crime and forced labor for the recent half-decade.

Countless people were enticed to the facility with guarantees of well-paid positions, and then forced to operate elaborate frauds, extracting billions of money from victims all over the globe.

The military, previously compromised by its associations to the scam operations, now declares it has occupied the facility as it increases control around Myawaddy, the key commercial connection to Thailand.

In the past few weeks, the junta has repelled insurgents in several areas of Myanmar, seeking to maximise the number of places where it can hold a scheduled vote, starting in December.

It still doesn't control large swathes of the state, which has been fragmented by conflict since a government overthrow in February 2021.

The election has been rejected as a fraud by resistance groups who have sworn to block it in territories they hold.

KK Park started with a lease agreement in early 2020 to construct an business complex between the ethnic organization (KNU), the ethnic insurgent group which controls much of this area, and a obscure Hong Kong publicly traded corporation, Huanya International.

Investigators suspect there are relationships between Huanya and a influential China-based criminal personality Wan Kuok Koi, more commonly called Broken Tooth, who has later backed further deception facilities on the boundary.

The facility grew swiftly, and is easily visible from the Thailand territory of the boundary.

Those who succeeded to flee from it detail a violent system established on the countless people, several from African countries, who were confined there, compelled to operate excessive periods, with torture and physical violence applied on those who did not manage to meet targets.

A announcement by the military's official media claimed its personnel had "liberated" KK Park, liberating over 2,000 workers there and taking possession of 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite terminals – commonly used by scam facilities on the Thai-Myanmar boundary for internet functions.

The statement blamed what it described as the "extremist" KNU and volunteer militia units, which have been fighting the junta since the overthrow, for illegally controlling the region.

The military's assertion to have dismantled this notorious fraud centre is probably targeted toward its main backer, China.

Beijing has been pressing the military and the Thai administration to increase efforts to end the unlawful operations operated by Chinese networks on their shared frontier.

In previous months numerous of China-based laborers were removed of scam compounds and flown on chartered planes back to China, after Thai authorities eliminated supply to electricity and energy supplies.

But KK Park is merely one of no fewer than 30 comparable facilities situated on the border.

Most of these are under the control of local militia groups aligned to the junta, and the majority are still active, with countless people running schemes inside them.

In fact, the support of these paramilitary forces has been essential in helping the armed forces repel the KNU and additional rebel organizations from territory they captured over the recent two-year period.

The armed forces now controls the vast majority of the highway linking Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a target the junta determined before it organizes the first stage of the vote in December.

It has taken Lay Kay Kaw, a new town founded for the KNU with Japanese funding in 2015, a time when there had been hopes for lasting peace in the territory following a national truce.

That constitutes a more important blow to the KNU than the takeover of KK Park, from which it obtained limited revenue, but where most of the financial advantages went to pro-junta paramilitary forces.

A well-placed contact has suggested that fraud activities is continuing in KK Park, and that it is likely the junta occupied merely a section of the sprawling compound.

The contact also suspects Beijing is providing the Myanmar junta inventories of Chinese people it desires taken from the deception facilities, and transported back to be prosecuted in China, which may account for why KK Park was attacked.