Renowned Online Scam Hub Linked with Chinese Underworld Raided

The Myanmar junta states it has taken control of a key the most notorious fraud complexes on the boundary with Thailand, as it regains important area previously lost in the current internal conflict.

KK Park, located south of the boundary community of Myawaddy, has been linked with digital deception, money laundering and people smuggling for the previous five-year period.

Countless people were attracted to the complex with assurances of well-paid jobs, and then compelled to operate elaborate schemes, taking substantial sums of money from targets across the planet.

The junta, historically tainted by its associations to the fraud industry, now says it has occupied the compound as it extends dominance around Myawaddy, the primary trade connection to Thailand.

In the past few weeks, the military has pushed back opposition fighters in various parts of Myanmar, seeking to increase the quantity of territories where it can conduct a planned election, beginning in December.

It still doesn't control large swathes of the state, which has been divided by conflict since a armed takeover in February 2021.

The vote has been disregarded as a fake by opposition forces who have pledged to obstruct it in regions they occupy.

KK Park began with a property arrangement in early 2020 to establish an industrial park between the Karen National Union (KNU), the rebel faction which governs much of this territory, and a obscure Hong Kong listed firm, Huanya International.

Analysts believe there are relationships between Huanya and a influential China-based mafia personality Wan Kuok Koi, often referred to as Broken Tooth, who has subsequently invested in additional scam hubs on the boundary.

The compound grew swiftly, and is easily visible from the Thai side of the border.

Those who were able to flee from it recount a brutal regime established on the thousands, several from Africa-based states, who were held there, compelled to work long hours, with torture and assaults inflicted on those who did not manage to achieve quotas.

A statement by the junta's communications department claimed its personnel had "secured" KK Park, freeing more than 2,000 laborers there and seizing 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink internet equipment – extensively used by scam centers on the Thai-Myanmar frontier for online operations.

The announcement accused what it described as the "extremist" KNU and volunteer people's defence forces, which have been opposing the regime since the overthrow, for unlawfully occupying the territory.

The military's assertion to have shut down this well-known fraud facility is probably aimed at its key backer, China.

Beijing has been pressuring the military and the Thailand government to take additional measures to stop the illegal businesses run by China-based networks on their shared frontier.

Previously in the year many of Asian workers were extracted of fraud compounds and flown on special flights back to China, after Thailand eliminated supply to energy and petroleum resources.

But KK Park is only one of at least 30 similar complexes positioned on the frontier.

A large portion of these are under the protection of Karen paramilitary forces allied to the regime, and the majority are still functioning, with numerous individuals running scams inside them.

In fact, the backing of these paramilitary forces has been critical in helping the junta repel the KNU and further rebel factions from area they seized over the recent two-year period.

The military now governs almost all of the route connecting Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a target the military determined before it conducts the opening round of the poll in December.

It has captured Lay Kay Kaw, a recent settlement founded for the KNU with Japanese financial support in 2015, a time when there had been aspirations for enduring tranquility in the Karen region following a national truce.

That forms a more important blow to the KNU than the capture of KK Park, from which it received limited income, but where the bulk of the monetary gains ended up with pro-junta militias.

A well-placed insider has indicated that deception operations is persisting in KK Park, and that it is likely the armed forces seized merely a section of the extensive compound.

The insider also suspects Beijing is supplying the Myanmar armed forces lists of Chinese people it wants taken from the fraud compounds, and sent back to stand trial in China, which may clarify why KK Park was raided.