A Chinese court has sentenced five top members of a notorious Myanmar Mafia to death as it continues to crack down on Scam Operations in South East Asia.
In all, 21 family members and associates were convicted of fraud, homicide, damage and other crimes, said a state report published on the court’s website.
The family is one of several Mafias that rose to power in the 2000s and transformed the poor backwater town of Laukkaing into a profitable hub of casinos and red light districts.
In recent years they have caused scams where thousands of trafficked workers, mostly Chinese, have been trapped, abused and forced to defraud others with billions of operations.
Mafia Boss Bai Soocheng and his son Bai Yingcang are among the five men sentenced to death by the shenzhen people’s court. Yang Liqiang, Hu Xiaojiang and Chen Guangyi are the other three.
Two members of the BAI Bai family were given suspended death sentences. Five were sentenced to life imprisonment, while nine others were given prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years.
The Bais, who control their own militia, have built 41 compounds to house their cyberscam activities and casinos, authorities said.
These criminal activities involved 29 billion Chinese Yuan ($4.1bn; £3.1bn). They also led to the death of six Chinese citizens, the suicide of one and many injuries, the state reported.
The harsh punishments handed down by the court are part of China’s campaign to root out large-scale scam networks in Southeast Asia – and send a stern warning to other crime syndicates.
In September A A Chinese court sentenced 11 members of the Ming family – Another famous laukkaing family – to death.
These families rose to power in the 2000s with the help of the Min Aung Hlaing Hlaing Hlaing Hlaing Hlaing Hlaing Hlaing Military. He wanted to declare the laukkaing’s allies after expelling its former warlord.
Among the families, the bais are “absolutely number one”, Bai Yingcang previously told State Media.
“At that time, our BAI family was the most powerful in political and military circles,” he said in a documentary about the Bai family, which China State Media aired in July.
In the same documentary, a worker in one of their Scam Centers recalls the abuse he suffered there: Besides having his fingers beaten with a kitchen knife.
BAI Yingcang is one of those sentenced to death this week. He also shared the conspiracy to traffic and manufacture 11 tons of methamphetamine, state media reported.
The fall in families came in 2023 as the political winds changed.
For years Beijing has pressured the Myanmar Junta to crack down on SCAM operations in Laukkaing.
In 2023, Chinese police issued arrest warrants for the most prominent members of these families.
Bai Souchen, the patriarch of BAI, is one of the warlords handed over to Beijing from Myanmar in early 2024.
“Why is the Chinese government making so much effort to follow the four families?” An investigator in China said in the July Documentary.
“Other people should be warned, whoever you are, wherever you are, wherever you commit such heinous crimes against the Chinese people, you will pay the price.”