Notorious Digital Scam Hub Connected with Chinese Underworld Targeted

The Myanmar military announces it has captured a key the most well-known fraud facilities on the border with Thailand, as it retakes key territory previously lost in the continuing civil war.

KK Park, located south of the frontier settlement of Myawaddy, has been linked with online fraud, cash cleaning and human trafficking for the past five years.

Thousands were lured to the compound with assurances of well-paid jobs, and then forced to operate elaborate frauds, taking billions of dollars from victims all over the world.

The junta, previously tainted by its links to the deception industry, now claims it has taken the complex as it expands authority around Myawaddy, the key trade link to Thailand.

In recent weeks, the military has repelled rebels in multiple parts of Myanmar, attempting to maximise the quantity of locations where it can conduct a scheduled poll, beginning in December.

It presently doesn't control extensive areas of the state, which has been fragmented by hostilities since a military coup in February 2021.

The election has been rejected as a sham by anti-junta elements who have pledged to obstruct it in areas they occupy.

KK Park started with a property arrangement in early 2020 to construct an commercial zone between the Karen National Union (KNU), the rebel organization which dominates much of this territory, and a little-known Hong Kong publicly traded corporation, Huanya International.

Analysts suspect there are relationships between Huanya and a notable China-based underworld figure Wan Kuok Koi, more commonly called Broken Tooth, who has subsequently invested in other deception centers on the frontier.

The facility grew rapidly, and is clearly noticeable from the Thailand territory of the border.

Those who were able to escape from it recount a brutal system imposed on the thousands, several from continental African states, who were held there, forced to labor extended shifts, with abuse and physical violence inflicted on those who did not manage to reach objectives.

A statement by the regime's information ministry claimed its troops had "secured" KK Park, freeing more than 2,000 workers there and seizing 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink communication devices – extensively utilized by deception facilities on the Myanmar-Thai frontier for digital operations.

The declaration blamed what it termed the "terrorist" Karen National Union and volunteer militia units, which have been fighting the military since the overthrow, for illegally occupying the region.

The military's assertion to have closed this well-known fraud facility is very likely directed at its main patron, China.

Beijing has been pressuring the junta and the Thai government to increase efforts to stop the unlawful operations operated by Chinese networks on their shared frontier.

In previous months many of Asian employees were extracted of fraud complexes and sent on arranged aircraft back to China, after Thailand cut availability to power and energy resources.

But KK Park is only one of at least 30 similar complexes located on the frontier.

The majority of these are under the control of ethnic Karen militia groups allied to the junta, and the majority are still functioning, with tens of thousands running schemes inside them.

In actuality, the assistance of these armed units has been crucial in enabling the junta repel the KNU and further resistance organizations from area they took control of over the past two years.

The armed forces now governs the vast majority of the road connecting Myawaddy to the remainder of Myanmar, a target the junta set itself before it organizes the opening round of the election in December.

It has captured Lay Kay Kaw, a recent settlement established for the KNU with Japanese funding in 2015, a period when there had been hopes for permanent stability in the territory following a national ceasefire.

That constitutes a more important setback to the KNU than the takeover of KK Park, from which it did get a certain amount of income, but where the bulk of the economic benefits went to military-aligned paramilitary forces.

A knowledgeable insider has suggested that fraud work is ongoing in KK Park, and that it is possible the junta occupied merely a section of the extensive facility.

The insider also thinks Beijing is supplying the Burmese armed forces inventories of Chinese persons it seeks removed from the deception complexes, and sent back to stand trial in China, which may clarify why KK Park was raided.