China condemns 11 members of the Ming Mafia family to death

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

Dozens of members of the Ming family have been found guilty of having carried out criminal activities, of which many prison sentences were long.

The Ming family worked for one of the four clans that led the sleeping city of Myanmar, Laukkai, near the border with China, and transformed it into a hub for the game, the drugs and the scam centers.

The Myanmar finally repressed, arresting many members of these families in 2023 and giving them to the Chinese authorities.

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

In addition to the 11 members who were sentenced to death, five others were sentenced to death sentences with suspensions of two years; He was imprisoned for life; And the rest was sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to 24 years.

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

Their gaming and scam activities had generated more than 10 billion yuan ($ 1.4 billion; 1 billion pound sterling), according to the court.

Others had previously considered that the casinos of each of the four families treated several billion dollars each year.

The court also concluded that the Ming family and other criminal groups were responsible for the deaths of several workers in the scam center, including shooters in an incident to prevent them from returning to China.

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

He was considered the machine room of what the UN nicknamed “the Escamdemic”, which saw more than 100,000 foreign nationals, including many Chinese, attracted by scam centers where they are actually imprisoned and forced to work long hours, performing sophisticated online fraud operations targeting victims of all the world.

The Ming family was once one of the most powerful in the state of Shan in Myanmar and directed scam centers in Laukkai which held at least 10,000 workers. The most notorious was a compound known as Tiger Villa Accroupi, where workers were regularly beaten and tortured.

Then, two years ago, an alliance of groups of insurgents launched an offensive which hunted the Myanmar army outside the major regions of the state of Shan and took control of Laukkai. China, which has a significant influence on these groups, has been supposed to have given the offensive a green light.

Ming Xuechang, the family’s patriarch, would have committed suicide; Other members of the family have been given to the Chinese authorities. Some have made confessions with remorse.

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

With these sentences, China signals its determination to treat harm’s scam activities hard at its border. Beijing pressure has also forced Thailand to take measures against scam centers along its border with Myanmar earlier this year.

Despite this, the company has adapted, a large part now operating in Cambodia, although it is always widespread in Myanmar.