Notorious Online Fraud Hub Connected with Asian Underworld Targeted

The Burmese armed forces claims it has captured one of the most well-known deception facilities on the frontier with Thailand, as it retakes key land surrendered in the ongoing civil war.

KK Park, positioned south of the frontier settlement of Myawaddy, has been synonymous with internet scams, financial crime and human trafficking for the past five years.

Countless people were attracted to the facility with promises of high-income positions, and then coerced to manage complex scams, taking countless millions of dollars from victims across the planet.

The junta, long stained by its associations to the deception industry, now declares it has occupied the compound as it increases control around Myawaddy, the main economic link to Thailand.

In the previous month, the armed forces has pushed back opposition fighters in several parts of Myanmar, aiming to expand the quantity of places where it can hold a planned election, starting in December.

It still doesn't control extensive areas of the state, which has been divided by fighting since a armed takeover in February 2021.

The election has been rejected as a fake by anti-junta elements who have sworn to prevent it in areas they occupy.

KK Park began with a rental contract in the first part of 2020 to build an commercial zone between the Karen National Union (KNU), the ethnic insurgent faction which governs much of this region, and a little-known HK publicly traded corporation, Huanya International.

Researchers think there are relationships between Huanya and a influential China-based criminal figure Wan Kuok Koi, better known as Broken Tooth, who has since invested in additional scam facilities on the border.

The compound developed rapidly, and is clearly noticeable from the Thai territory of the border.

Those who were able to flee from it describe a violent environment imposed on the numerous individuals, several from Africa-based states, who were detained there, compelled to work excessive periods, with abuse and physical violence applied on those who were unable to achieve quotas.

A statement by the regime's communications department said its forces had "liberated" KK Park, freeing more than 2,000 laborers there and seizing 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite terminals – extensively employed by fraud centers on the Thai-Myanmar border for online functions.

The statement faulted what it termed the "extremist" ethnic organization and civilian militia units, which have been fighting the regime since the takeover, for wrongfully occupying the territory.

The regime's claim to have shut down this well-known deception facility is probably targeted toward its key patron, China.

Beijing has been urging the junta and the Thailand authorities to increase efforts to terminate the unlawful activities operated by Chinese syndicates on their common boundary.

Earlier this year thousands of China-based employees were extracted of deception facilities and flown on arranged aircraft back to China, after Thai authorities cut availability to energy and energy provisions.

But KK Park is merely one of no fewer than 30 comparable facilities located on the boundary.

A large portion of these are under the protection of local paramilitary forces aligned to the military, and the majority are still functioning, with tens of thousands managing scams inside them.

In reality, the backing of these armed units has been critical in helping the armed forces push back the KNU and additional opposition organizations from territory they took control of over the past two years.

The military now controls nearly all of the road connecting Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a target the military determined before it conducts the opening round of the election in December.

It has captured Lay Kay Kaw, a new town founded for the KNU with Japanese financial support in 2015, a era when there had been expectations for enduring tranquility in Karen State following a nationwide ceasefire.

That constitutes a more significant blow to the KNU than the capture of KK Park, from which it obtained limited revenue, but where the bulk of the monetary benefits ended up with regime-supporting armed groups.

A well-placed contact has suggested that fraud work is continuing in KK Park, and that it is possible the military seized merely a section of the extensive complex.

The source also believes Beijing is giving the Burmese military inventories of China-based people it desires removed from the scam complexes, and sent back to be prosecuted in China, which may clarify why KK Park was targeted.