Notorious Digital Scam Hub Linked with China-based Criminal Syndicate Targeted

The Myanmar junta claims it has captured one of the most notorious scam complexes on the boundary with Thai territory, as it reclaims key territory lost in the continuing civil war.

KK Park, positioned south of the border town of Myawaddy, has been linked with internet scams, financial crime and human trafficking for the past five years.

Countless people were lured to the complex with guarantees of high-income positions, and then forced to operate elaborate schemes, stealing billions of currency from victims throughout the globe.

The military, long tainted by its associations to the scam business, now says it has seized the facility as it expands authority around Myawaddy, the key economic link to Thailand.

In the past few weeks, the junta has pushed back opposition fighters in multiple areas of Myanmar, seeking to maximise the number of territories where it can organize a scheduled poll, beginning in December.

It currently hasn't mastered significant territories of the state, which has been torn apart by conflict since a military coup in February 2021.

The election has been rejected as a fraud by opposition forces who have pledged to block it in areas they hold.

KK Park began with a rental contract in the first part of 2020 to construct an industrial park between the KNU (KNU), the armed ethnic faction which governs much of this territory, and a obscure Hong Kong listed corporation, Huanya International.

Analysts suspect there are links between Huanya and a notable Chinese mafia figure Wan Kuok Koi, often referred to as Broken Tooth, who has subsequently invested in additional scam facilities on the boundary.

The facility grew swiftly, and is easily noticeable from the Thai territory of the boundary.

Those who were able to get away from it recount a harsh regime imposed on the numerous individuals, numerous from African countries, who were held there, made to labor long hours, with mistreatment and physical violence inflicted on those who failed to meet targets.

A declaration by the regime's information ministry said its forces had "secured" KK Park, releasing more than 2,000 workers there and seizing 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink communication devices – commonly utilized by fraud hubs on the Thai-Myanmar border for digital activities.

The announcement accused what it termed the "extremist" Karen National Union and local people's defence forces, which have been combating the regime since the coup, for illegally occupying the region.

The regime's declaration to have dismantled this notorious fraud facility is almost certainly aimed at its key patron, China.

Beijing has been urging the regime and the Thailand administration to do more to end the criminal operations managed by China-based organizations on their common boundary.

Earlier this year thousands of Chinese laborers were taken out of deception facilities and sent on chartered planes back to China, after Thailand eliminated supply to power and fuel provisions.

But KK Park is only one of a minimum of 30 analogous complexes located on the frontier.

Most of these are under the control of local militia groups aligned to the military, and the majority are still operating, with numerous individuals operating schemes inside them.

In actuality, the backing of these militia groups has been essential in helping the military drive back the KNU and further opposition groups from area they took control of over the recent two-year period.

The armed forces now controls nearly all of the highway connecting Myawaddy to the remainder of Myanmar, a objective the junta determined before it holds the initial phase of the vote in December.

It has captured Lay Kay Kaw, a modern community founded for the KNU with Japanese funding in 2015, a period when there had been hopes for lasting stability in the territory following a countrywide peace agreement.

That constitutes a more important defeat to the KNU than the seizure of KK Park, from which it received a certain amount of revenue, but where the majority of the financial advantages ended up with military-aligned militias.

A well-placed source has revealed that deception activities is persisting in KK Park, and that it is likely the junta seized merely a section of the large-scale facility.

The source also suspects Beijing is giving the Burmese armed forces rosters of Asian people it wants extracted from the deception facilities, and returned back to be prosecuted in China, which may clarify why KK Park was raided.