China has executed 11 members of a crime syndicate that made at least $1.4 billion via pig butchering scams and illegal casinos across Southeast Asia.
The Ming mafia family was based in the Laukkia township, a hub of casinos and red light districts in north Myanmar that sits on the border with China.
It oversaw a large scam compound called Crouching Tiger Villa, where victims were trafficked and forced to carry out online scams. The family reportedly made 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) between 2015 and 2023.
However, members of the family were detained in 2023 after China-backed ethnic militia groups retook the region.
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The organization’s head, Ming Xuechang, who also ran the local police force in Laukkia, reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot after warrants were issued for his arrest.
Eleven Ming family members were sentenced to death last September by a Chinese court for their crimes, including fraud, illegal detention, and homicide, including the death of 14 Chinese citizens.
A total of 39 Ming family members were sentenced for various crimes, with some receiving five-year prison sentences and life sentences.
Chinese crackdown on scam center syndicates
The Ming family executions are the culmination of China’s efforts to dismantle criminal syndicates that have established scam centres inside armed compounds across Myanmar’s border with China, Thailand, and Laos.
The gangs abduct victims, many of whom are Chinese, and force them to scam international victims out of money, often in the form of cryptocurrency.
The Ming family members are the first of a number of Myanmar crime bosses set to be executed in China. Last November, five members of the Bai family were also sentenced to death for overseeing 41 scam compounds that made billions of dollars, amongst other illicit industries.
The Ming family’s head was reportedly just a henchman to the Bai family, which is one of the four major Godfather-esque families that ruled the Laukkaing District for years. Members of the Wei and the Liu families are still on trial.
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Earlier this month, the suspected head of another scam operation, under the company name of Prince Group, was arrested in Cambodia.
Chen Zhi is now in Chinese custody and is being investigated over his role in a $16 billion scam enterprise. A sum of 127,271 bitcoin, worth $11 billion at the time of writing, is believed to have been laundered by the group and was seized by the US.
Onlookers have speculated that the US was able to hack into these funds as the private keys to these crypto addresses were reportedly vulnerable.
Zhi’s arrest has since thrown parts of Cambodia’s scam industry into disarray, with laundering services shutting down and victims fleeing scam compounds.