Renowned Online Deception Complex Connected with Asian Mafia Targeted

The Burmese armed forces announces it has taken control of among the most infamous deception complexes on the frontier with Thailand, as it regains key area previously lost in the continuing civil war.

KK Park, located south of the frontier settlement of Myawaddy, has been linked with internet scams, money laundering and human trafficking for the past five years.

Thousands were enticed to the complex with promises of well-paid employment, and then compelled to manage complex frauds, extracting billions of currency from victims throughout the globe.

The military, long stained by its connections to the scam industry, now claims it has seized the complex as it extends control around Myawaddy, the primary trade connection to Thailand.

In the previous month, the armed forces has pushed back opposition fighters in various parts of Myanmar, seeking to maximise the number of territories where it can organize a planned vote, commencing in December.

It currently lacks authority over significant territories of the state, which has been torn apart by hostilities since a government overthrow in February 2021.

The poll has been dismissed as a fraud by resistance groups who have pledged to obstruct it in areas they occupy.

KK Park began with a lease agreement in early 2020 to build an industrial park between the KNU (KNU), the armed ethnic faction which controls much of this area, and a unfamiliar HK stock market firm, Huanya International.

Researchers suspect there are links between Huanya and a influential Asian mafia personality Wan Kuok Koi, more commonly called Broken Tooth, who has subsequently invested in other scam hubs on the border.

The compound expanded swiftly, and is clearly noticeable from the Thailand territory of the boundary.

Those who succeeded to escape from it recount a brutal environment established on the countless people, several from Africa-based countries, who were detained there, forced to operate excessive periods, with torture and physical violence inflicted on those who were unable to achieve targets.

A announcement by the regime's information ministry stated its troops had "secured" KK Park, freeing in excess of 2,000 employees there and confiscating 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink communication devices – commonly utilized by fraud centers on the Thai-Myanmar boundary for digital operations.

The statement faulted what it termed the "extremist" KNU and civilian people's defence forces, which have been opposing the junta since the coup, for illegally holding the territory.

The regime's assertion to have dismantled this infamous scam facility is probably targeted toward its main patron, China.

Beijing has been pressing the junta and the Thai government to take additional measures to terminate the criminal activities operated by China-based syndicates on their border.

Earlier this year thousands of Chinese employees were taken out of fraud compounds and sent on chartered planes back to China, after Thai authorities cut access to power and energy supplies.

But KK Park is just a single of at least 30 similar complexes positioned on the border.

A large portion of these are under the control of ethnic Karen militia groups associated to the junta, and many are currently operating, with countless people running schemes inside them.

In fact, the support of these militia groups has been essential in helping the military push back the KNU and further resistance groups from land they took control of over the past two years.

The armed forces now dominates the vast majority of the road linking Myawaddy to the remainder of Myanmar, a goal the junta established before it conducts the initial phase of the election in December.

It has taken Lay Kay Kaw, a recent settlement created for the KNU with Japanese financial support in 2015, a period when there had been hopes for permanent stability in Karen State following a countrywide truce.

That forms a more substantial defeat to the KNU than the capture of KK Park, from which it received a certain amount of income, but where the bulk of the monetary advantages went to pro-junta paramilitary forces.

A knowledgeable contact has suggested that scam operations is ongoing in KK Park, and that it is likely the military seized just a portion of the sprawling facility.

The contact also believes Beijing is providing the Burmese military inventories of Chinese people it seeks taken from the fraud facilities, and returned back to face trial in China, which may account for why KK Park was targeted.