Notorious Digital Deception Hub Connected with China-based Mafia Targeted

The Myanmar military states it has taken control of a key the most infamous fraud facilities on the border with Thai territory, as it retakes key land lost in the ongoing internal conflict.

KK Park, positioned south of the frontier settlement of Myawaddy, has been associated with internet scams, money laundering and human trafficking for the recent half-decade.

Countless people were lured to the facility with assurances of high-income jobs, and then coerced to operate complex scams, stealing substantial sums of dollars from victims all over the world.

The military, long tainted by its connections to the fraud business, now declares it has seized the complex as it expands control around Myawaddy, the primary trade route to Thailand.

In the past few weeks, the junta has driven back insurgents in several regions of Myanmar, aiming to expand the amount of territories where it can conduct a planned election, starting in December.

It currently doesn't control significant territories of the country, which has been torn apart by fighting since a military coup in February 2021.

The vote has been dismissed as a fake by anti-junta elements who have vowed to prevent it in territories they hold.

KK Park commenced with a property arrangement in the first part of 2020 to build an industrial park between the KNU (KNU), the armed ethnic faction which dominates much of this area, and a unfamiliar Hong Kong listed company, Huanya International.

Investigators think there are links between Huanya and a influential China-based mafia figure Wan Kuok Koi, better known as Broken Tooth, who has later invested in other deception centers on the border.

The compound developed quickly, and is clearly observable from the Thai territory of the boundary.

Those who were able to escape from it recount a violent regime established on the countless people, several from African nations, who were held there, compelled to operate long hours, with torture and physical violence inflicted on those who did not manage to reach quotas.

A statement by the regime's official media stated its forces had "cleared" KK Park, releasing over 2,000 employees there and taking possession of 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink internet equipment – widely employed by deception hubs on the border boundary for internet activities.

The announcement faulted what it termed the "militant" ethnic organization and volunteer militia units, which have been opposing the junta since the takeover, for wrongfully holding the area.

The junta's claim to have shut down this well-known deception hub is very likely directed at its primary supporter, China.

Beijing has been urging the regime and the Thai administration to take additional measures to end the illegal activities run by Chinese networks on their border.

Previously in the year thousands of China-based employees were taken out of deception complexes and sent on chartered planes back to China, after Thai authorities cut availability to power and petroleum provisions.

But KK Park is just a single of no fewer than 30 comparable compounds located on the boundary.

Most of these are under the protection of ethnic Karen armed units allied to the military, and the majority are currently functioning, with tens of thousands managing scams inside them.

In fact, the backing of these armed units has been essential in assisting the armed forces drive back the KNU and further resistance organizations from territory they captured over the previous 24 months.

The armed forces now controls nearly all of the highway connecting Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a objective the regime established before it conducts the first stage of the vote in December.

It has captured Lay Kay Kaw, a modern community founded for the KNU with Japanese funding in 2015, a era when there had been aspirations for lasting peace in Karen State following a nationwide peace agreement.

That constitutes a more significant setback to the KNU than the seizure of KK Park, from which it did get some revenue, but where the bulk of the financial gains ended up with military-aligned militias.

A informed insider has revealed that scam operations is persisting in KK Park, and that it is probable the armed forces took control of only part of the extensive compound.

The source also believes Beijing is supplying the Myanmar armed forces rosters of Asian individuals it seeks extracted from the fraud complexes, and transported back to stand trial in China, which may clarify why KK Park was targeted.