Notorious Digital Scam Complex Connected with Chinese Criminal Syndicate Targeted

The Myanmar junta states it has seized a key the most notorious scam facilities on the frontier with Thai territory, as it regains key territory lost in the ongoing domestic strife.

KK Park, positioned south of the border town of Myawaddy, has been synonymous with online fraud, financial crime and people smuggling for the past five years.

Numerous individuals were enticed to the compound with promises of well-paid jobs, and then compelled to operate complex schemes, taking substantial sums of dollars from victims all over the globe.

The military, previously tainted by its connections to the deception business, now declares it has occupied the complex as it increases control around Myawaddy, the main trade route to Thailand.

In recent weeks, the armed forces has driven back opposition fighters in several parts of Myanmar, aiming to increase the quantity of territories where it can conduct a planned poll, beginning in December.

It still hasn't mastered significant territories of the country, which has been torn apart by fighting since a armed takeover in February 2021.

The election has been dismissed as a sham by resistance groups who have pledged to obstruct it in territories they hold.

KK Park commenced with a rental contract in the first part of 2020 to establish an business complex between the Karen National Union (KNU), the armed ethnic group which dominates much of this area, and a little-known HK publicly traded company, Huanya International.

Investigators suspect there are connections between Huanya and a notable Asian criminal figure Wan Kuok Koi, better known as Broken Tooth, who has later invested in other scam centers on the border.

The complex grew quickly, and is easily observable from the Thailand territory of the boundary.

Those who managed to flee from it detail a violent system established on the countless people, numerous from Africa-based nations, who were held there, compelled to operate excessive periods, with abuse and physical violence applied on those who did not manage to reach targets.

A statement by the junta's information ministry said its forces had "secured" KK Park, releasing over 2,000 laborers there and seizing 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite terminals – commonly used by deception facilities on the Myanmar-Thai frontier for digital activities.

The declaration faulted what it called the "extremist" ethnic organization and volunteer resistance groups, which have been fighting the junta since the coup, for unlawfully controlling the territory.

The regime's declaration to have closed this well-known fraud centre is almost certainly directed at its main patron, China.

Beijing has been urging the junta and the Thailand administration to take additional measures to stop the criminal activities operated by Chinese organizations on their shared frontier.

In previous months thousands of Asian laborers were removed of scam facilities and sent on special flights back to China, after Thai authorities restricted supply to power and fuel supplies.

But KK Park is only one of no fewer than 30 analogous facilities located on the border.

A large portion of these are under the guardianship of ethnic Karen armed units associated to the regime, and the majority are currently operating, with tens of thousands managing frauds inside them.

In fact, the assistance of these paramilitary forces has been essential in assisting the junta repel the KNU and additional resistance factions from territory they took control of over the previous 24 months.

The armed forces now controls the vast majority of the road connecting Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a objective the junta determined before it conducts the initial phase of the poll in December.

It has taken Lay Kay Kaw, a new town established for the KNU with Japan-based funding in 2015, a era when there had been aspirations for permanent tranquility in Karen State following a nationwide ceasefire.

That constitutes a more important defeat to the KNU than the capture of KK Park, from which it obtained some funds, but where the majority of the economic benefits were directed to regime-supporting militias.

A knowledgeable insider has suggested that fraud activities is continuing in KK Park, and that it is possible the junta took control of only part of the sprawling facility.

The source also believes Beijing is supplying the Myanmar armed forces lists of Chinese individuals it wants removed from the scam complexes, and sent back to face trial in China, which may clarify why KK Park was targeted.