China executed this Thursday (29) 11 people accused of being members of a cybercriminal gang operating in Myanmar, known as the Ming Family Criminal Group. They had been sentenced to the death penalty in September last year by a court in the eastern city of Wenzhou.
Among those executed were “key members” of these networks, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
In the same trial, the court also handed down five death sentences suspended for two years (that is, they will not be imposed if those convicted meet conditions imposed by the Court during that period), 11 life sentences and 12 sentences ranging from five to 24 years in prison for crimes including fraud, intentional homicide and intentional bodily harm, for a total of 14 criminal charges.
The court found it proven that, since 2015, a group organized around members of the so-called Ming family used its influence in the Kokang region, in Myanmar, and its control over allied armed forces to establish several operational centers in locations such as Laukkai.
According to the ruling, these centers served to recruit and provide armed cover for “investors” or “sponsors”, whose groups carried out telecommunications and internet fraud, opened casinos, trafficked drugs and organized prostitution networks.
The court noted that the capital involved in gambling and fraud activities exceeded 10 billion yuan (R$7.48 billion).
He also pointed out that people linked to the coups who tried to flee or resisted orders were killed or injured, resulting in ten deaths and two injuries.
Cyber fraud centers have proliferated in Myanmar in areas bordering China following the February 2021 coup, which created major instability in the country and facilitated the activities of all types of organized crime groups.
In 2023, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released a report that pointed to the growth of this type of scam in Southeast Asia.
According to UNODC, situations in which people are tricked into committing crimes already represented 10.2% of all cases of human trafficking reported worldwide.
In Southeast Asia, countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have large structures for committing cyber crimes, within casinos, hotels and companies, “where victims are confined and forced to commit or be accomplices in cyber crimes”, according to the report.
According to the United Nations, at least 120,000 people are detained in centers in Myanmar, where they are forced to carry out online scams, while in Cambodia, the other epicenter of these crimes, the number is estimated at around 100,000.
