Chinese sentences 11 members of the Mafia family until death

A Chinese court has sentenced to death 11 members of a notorious family that led Scam centers in Myanmar, according to Chinese state media.

Dozens of members of the Ming family were declared guilty of carrying out criminal activities, and many received long prison sentences.

The Ming family worked for one of the four clans that directed the sleepy city of Laukkaing of Myanmar, near the border with China, and made it a center for the game, drugs and scam centers.

Myanmar finally took energetic measures, stopping many members of these families in 2023 and giving them Chinese authorities.

A total of 39 members of the Ming family were sentenced Monday in the eastern city of Wenzhou, according to a report by the Chinese state station CCTV.

In addition to the 11 members who received death sentences, another five received death sentences with suspensions of two years; 11 were imprisoned for life; And the rest received prison sentences from five to 24 years.

The court determined that since 2015 the Ming family and other criminal groups had been involved in criminal activities, including telecommunications fraud, illegal casinos, drug trafficking and prostitution.

Its game and scam activities had generated more than 10 billion yuan ($ 1.4 billion; £ 1 billion), according to the court.

Others had previously estimated that the casinos of each of the four families were processing several billion dollars each year.

The court also determined that the Ming family and other criminal groups were responsible for the death of several workers in the center of scams, including shoe workers in an incident to prevent them from returning to China.

Initially developed to take advantage of the Chinese game demand, which is illegal in China and in many other neighboring countries, Laukkaing casinos became a lucrative front to wash money, traffic and dozens of scam centers.

It was seen as the motor hall of what the UN has called the “scam”, which has seen more than 100,000 foreign citizens, many of them Chinese, being attracted to fraud centers where they are effectively imprisoned and forced to work long hours, with sophisticated online fraud operations that direct victims to everyone.

The Ming family was once one of the most powerful in the state of Shanar de Myanmar, and directed centers of scammers in Laukkaing, which contained at least 10,000 workers. The most notorious was a compound known as Crouching Tiger Villa, where workers were routinely beaten and tortured.

Then, two years ago, an alliance of insurgent groups launched an offensive that expelled Myanmar’s army to the great areas of Shan’s state, and took control of Laukkaing. China was supposed to have a significant influence on these groups, gave the offensive a green light.

Ming Xuechang, the family’s patriarch, according to reports, committed suicide; Other family members were delivered to the Chinese authorities. Some have made repentant confessions.

Thousands of those who work in the scam centers have also been delivered to the Chinese police.

With these prayers, China is pointing out its determination to deal hard with the scam business on its border. Beijing’s pressure also forced Thailand to take measures against fraud centers along its border with Myanmar earlier this year.

Despite this, the business has adapted, and much of that now operates in Cambodia, although it is still frequent in Myanmar.