Notorious Cyber Scam Center Associated with Chinese Criminal Syndicate Targeted

The Burmese junta claims it has captured one of the most well-known scam compounds on the border with Thai territory, as it retakes key area previously lost in the continuing civil war.

KK Park, positioned south of the frontier settlement of Myawaddy, has been associated with digital deception, cash cleaning and forced labor for the recent half-decade.

Thousands were enticed to the compound with assurances of well-paid jobs, and then compelled to manage sophisticated frauds, taking substantial sums of money from affected individuals across the world.

The military, historically compromised by its connections to the scam industry, now claims it has taken the complex as it increases control around Myawaddy, the primary commercial route to Thailand.

In the previous month, the military has driven back opposition fighters in various areas of Myanmar, aiming to increase the amount of places where it can hold a proposed poll, starting in December.

It currently lacks authority over extensive areas of the state, which has been torn apart by fighting since a armed takeover in February 2021.

The poll has been dismissed as a fake by opposition forces who have vowed to block it in territories they hold.

KK Park started with a rental contract in early 2020 to construct an commercial zone between the KNU (KNU), the rebel group which dominates much of this region, and a unfamiliar HK listed company, Huanya International.

Researchers think there are connections between Huanya and a influential China-based mafia personality Wan Kuok Koi, better known as Broken Tooth, who has later backed additional fraud facilities on the border.

The compound grew swiftly, and is readily observable from the Thai side of the boundary.

Those who managed to escape from it recount a violent system enforced on the thousands, several from Africa-based countries, who were held there, forced to work extended shifts, with torture and physical violence inflicted on those who were unable to achieve quotas.

A declaration by the regime's official media said its troops had "liberated" KK Park, releasing more than 2,000 employees there and seizing 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite terminals – extensively employed by fraud hubs on the Thai-Myanmar frontier for internet activities.

The declaration accused what it called the "militant" KNU and volunteer people's defence forces, which have been opposing the junta since the overthrow, for wrongfully controlling the area.

The regime's declaration to have dismantled this infamous deception facility is probably directed at its key backer, China.

Beijing has been pressuring the military and the Thailand administration to do more to terminate the criminal businesses run by China-based syndicates on their border.

In previous months many of China-based employees were taken out of scam compounds and transported on arranged aircraft back to China, after Thailand cut access to energy and petroleum provisions.

But KK Park is only one of a minimum of 30 similar complexes located on the border.

A large portion of these are under the protection of ethnic Karen militia groups associated to the junta, and many are currently functioning, with countless people managing scams inside them.

In reality, the support of these paramilitary forces has been essential in enabling the junta repel the KNU and additional rebel organizations from territory they seized over the recent two-year period.

The armed forces now controls almost all of the route connecting Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a objective the junta established before it organizes the initial phase of the election in December.

It has seized Lay Kay Kaw, a recent settlement founded for the KNU with Japan-based investment in 2015, a period when there had been aspirations for enduring peace in the Karen region following a nationwide peace agreement.

That constitutes a more substantial defeat to the KNU than the capture of KK Park, from which it obtained limited revenue, but where most of the monetary gains went to regime-supporting armed groups.

A knowledgeable source has revealed that deception activities is ongoing in KK Park, and that it is likely the armed forces took control of only part of the large-scale compound.

The contact also suspects Beijing is providing the Myanmar armed forces inventories of China-based individuals it wants removed from the deception facilities, and returned back to stand trial in China, which may explain why KK Park was targeted.