Eleven Sentenced to Death in China for Scam Activities 

A Chinese court sentenced 11 ringleaders of a billion-dollar criminal enterprise involving scams, human trafficking, cybercrime, and illegal gambling in northern Myanmar to death, a case that is part of a larger crackdown on the criminal networks Beijing once not only tolerated but supported, the Washington Post reported. 

The 11 convicted people sentenced by a court in Wenzhou city late Monday included Ming Guoping and Ming Zhenzhen, the son and granddaughter of the late clan leader Ming Xuechang. Five others involved in the enterprise were handed death sentences with a two-year reprieve, while 12 more were given sentences ranging from five years to life. 

The Ming crime family is one of the so-called “four families” of northern Myanmar: These mafia-like crime syndicates are accused of operating vast compounds involved in online fraud, prostitution, and drug production. Many members of these families also hold influential positions in government and in militias aligned with Myanmar’s junta, the CNN wrote. 

The Ming family has long been linked with a compound in Kokang, an autonomous region on Myanmar’s border with China. The court found their facilities – where workers were kept against their will and threatened with physical harm if they attempted to leave – generated over $1.4 billion in illicit profits since 2015. 

China launched a sweeping crackdown on crime networks in 2023, spurred by the Myanmar junta’s inaction against the scam centers, by years of complaints by the Chinese families of the trafficked, and by rising international scrutiny – the illicit scamming operations spread to Southeast Asia and then globally in recent years. 

Meanwhile, an investigation by the Washington Post found that Chinese officials, especially those in southwest Yunnan province, had cultivated ties with the powerful crime families.  

At their peak, these families and affiliated armed groups ran more than 300 scam compounds and casinos with tens of thousands of trafficking victims, according to the United Nations. Many were Chinese nationals lured to the border regions with fake promises of well-paid jobs, only to be kidnapped and smuggled into Kokang.