ELEVEN members of a notorious organised crime family have been sentenced to death over international scam centres.
A Chinese court handed down the brutal sentence to multiple members of the Ming family, while other members were sentenced to suspended death sentences, life imprisonments, and fixed-term sentences.
The fixed term sentences ranged from five to 24 years.
Ming Guoping, Ming Zhenzhen, Zhou Weichang, Wu Hongming, Wu Senlong and Fu Yubin were six of the 11 defendants sentenced to die.
Other punishments included various fines, confiscation of property and deportation, a Chinese court heard.
A total of 39 Ming family members fronted court on Monday in Wenzhou, in eastern China.
According to China Central Television (CCTV), the Ming family criminal syndicate had exploited their influence in the Kokang region of Myanmar.
Operating since 2015, the family worked for one of the four clans who ran the Laukkai district, close to China’s border.
The area was turned into a hotspot for gambling, drugs and scam centres.
In 2023, Myanmar’s government cracked down on the illegal activities, arresting many members of the families and handing them over to Chinese authorities.
The region was chosen to exploit the Chinese desire for gambling – an illegal practice in China and many other neighbouring countries.
What started out as casinos evolved into fronts for money laundering, trafficking and dozens of scam centres.
Working with financiers, the family syndicate carried out telecom fraud, illegal casinos, drug trafficking and prostitution, implicating more than $1.4 billion (10 billion yuan) in illicit funds.
Estimates suggest that illegal casinos were generating several billion dollars in profit every year.
The syndicate and its enablers killed or injured people involved who attempted to escape or resist control.
In the process, 10 people died and two were injured.
The root location for what the UN later called the “scamdemic”, the centres saw more than 100,000 foreign nationals – including many Chinese people – being lured in and effectively imprisoned.
Captured people were forced to work long hours, running sophisticated online fraud operations targeting victims from all over the globe.
Once the most powerful family in Myanmar’s Shan State, the Ming family ran scam centres, some holding more than 10,000 workers.
The most notorious compound was known as Crouching Tiger Villa, where workers were routinely beaten and tortured.
The Ming family reign came to an end two years ago when insurgent groups formed an alliance and attacked the Myanmar military in the region.
The groups took control of the area forcing out local authorities, pulling the rug out from beneath the Ming family operation.
Ming Quechang – the family patriarch – reportedly killed himself and other family members were handed over to the Chinese authorities.
Some have since confessed to their involvement in the criminal activity.
Thousands of those working in scam centres were also handed over to Chinese police.
Earlier this year, pressure from Beijing forced Thailand to take action against scam centres on the Myanmar border.
The court found their conduct had constituted 14 crimes, including fraud, intentional homicide and intentional injury.
More than 160 people, including local legislators, political advisers, Ming family members and members of the public attended the trial.
The centres are still prevalent in Myanmar, however, have evolved cross-border into Cambodia.
