China Executes 11 Members of Myanmar Scam Mafia
7 122The BBC reports: China has executed 11 members of a notorious mafia family that ran scam centres in Myanmar along its north-eastern border, state media report.
The Ming family members were sentenced in September for various crimes including homicide, illegal detention, fraud and operating gambling dens by a court in China's Zhejiang province. The Mings were one of many clans that ran the town of Laukkaing, transforming an impoverished backwater town into a flashy hub of casinos and red-light districts. Their scam empire came crashing down in 2023, when they were detained and handed over to China by ethnic militias that had taken control of Laukkaing during an escalation in their conflict with Myanmar's army. With these executions Beijing is sending a message of deterrence to would-be scammers.
But the business has now moved to Myanmar's border with Thailand, and to Cambodia and Laos, where China has much less influence.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to run online scams in Myanmar and elsewhere in South East Asia, according to estimates by the UN. Among them are thousands of Chinese people, and their victims who they swindle billions of dollars from are mainly Chinese too. Frustrated by the Myanmar military's refusal to stop the scam business, from which it was almost certainly profiting, Beijing tacitly backed an offensive by an ethnic insurgent alliance in Shan State in late 2023. The alliance captured significant territory from the military and overran Laukkaing, a key border town.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sinij for sharing the news.
7 comments
Well, I guess that's finally the end of (Score: 5, Funny)
by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday February 01, 2026 @03:38AM (#65962120)
... the Ming Dynasty.
Re: Death penalty is rarely an effective crime det (Score: 5, Informative)
by Anonymous Coward ( None ) on Sunday February 01, 2026 @05:11AM (#65962196)
In the US, statistics say the death penalty has very little effect. Among other things, states with the death penalty have higher homicide rates than those that have abolished it.
In most criminal acts, people only think about whether or not they will be caught; the severity of the penalty is not a significant part of the equation.
There have been many studies of this:
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
Re: Death penalty is rarely an effective crime det (Score: 5, Insightful)
by XXongo ( 3986865 ) on Sunday February 01, 2026 @09:33AM (#65962378)
In the US, statistics say the death penalty has very little effect. Among other things, states with the death penalty have higher homicide rates than those that have abolished it.
You could state the exact same statistic in the opposite order: states with higher homicide rates are more likely to have the death penalty than those with lower homicide rates. Not to say that the conclusion is wrong, just that this particular statistic is hard to interpret.
But, the wild card is that homicide rates are decreasing in all states, with or without the death penalty.
In most criminal acts, people only think about whether or not they will be caught; the severity of the penalty is not a significant part of the equation. There have been many studies of this: search?q=death+penalty+deterrence+facts+united+states [google.com]
Re: Death penalty is rarely an effective crime de (Score: 5, Informative)
by tomtermite ( 246492 ) on <termini@NoSPAM.bluedog.net> on Sunday February 01, 2026 @06:29AM (#65962246)
In reality, this isnâ(TM)t the case. The death penalty is not regarding an effective deterrent primarily because it is rarely and inconsistently applied, does not account for the impulsive or irrational nature of violent crimes, and lacks solid statistical evidence showing it reduces homicide rates more than life imprisonment. Too often, the application state-sponsored murder often functions as retribution rather than prevention â" see Duterte / Philipines, for example. The USA, a so-called advanced nation, has since 1973, exonerated at least 200 people from death row, with at least 21 others executed who were likely innocent. A quick google suggests that, for every 8 individuals executed in the modern era, one person on death row has been found innocent. A 2014 study estimates at least 4% of those sentenced to death are innocent.
Trafficking (Score: 5, Informative)
by Pollux ( 102520 ) on <speter.tedata@net@eg> on Sunday February 01, 2026 @07:15AM (#65962260)
Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to run online scams in Myanmar and elsewhere in South East Asia.
I was in the Philippines last November attending a wedding. The groom was a member of the Philippine Coast Guard. He said the #1 problem he dealt with was illegal fishing. The #2 problem he dealt with was trafficking of women and children. He said they seize at least one boat every month with hundreds of passengers. These women (and parents of the children) actually pay brokers to transport them over to Thailand, where they are promised employment. Then, when they get to Thailand, they're smuggled through the country into Laos, Cambodia, or Burma to work in these locations managed by crime families, often managed by the Chinese mafia.
Never forget: slavery still exists today. The western world just outsourced it to poorer countries.
Re:Trafficking (Score: 5, Informative)
by unixisc ( 2429386 ) on Sunday February 01, 2026 @10:08AM (#65962438)
The western world didn't outsource squat. These drug cartels in these countries are local - manned by locals. That area is known as the Golden Triangle for being the hub of opium trade historically, and who knows what narcs these days. They didn't need any Western influence to engage in this trade
Yup, this happens (Score: 5, Interesting)
by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Sunday February 01, 2026 @10:50AM (#65962484)
My Cambodian SIL got caught up in this; she and her boyfriend were basically abducted, driven to Myanmar and locked in one of these compounds. They were forced to work phone scams and were beaten if they didn't perform.
She managed to get a message to Hun Sen (over Facebook, of all places), and believe it or not, he listened. The Cambodian authorities worked with the Myanmar cops (who are NOTORIOUSLY CROOKED) and they raided the compound, freeing them and hundreds of other forced-labor workers (prisoners/slaves). So my SIL helped get them shut down and arrested, and now they'll all be executed and pushing up daisies.