China Executes 11 Members of Myanmar-Based Online Fraud Ring: "Over 2 Trillion Won Stolen"

Death Penalty Executed for Members of the "Ming Family" Criminal Organization

China has executed 11 members of a Chinese criminal organization who had been conducting online fraud crimes based in Myanmar.

According to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency on the 29th, the Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court carried out the death penalty for 11 members of the criminal group "Ming Family," including Ming Guoping, Ming Zhenzhen, Zhou Weichang, Wu Hongming, Wu Xianrong, and Fu Yubin, after receiving approval from the Supreme People's Court. The Ming Family is one of four organizations that established themselves in Laukkai, a border town in Myanmar adjacent to Yunnan Province, China, and turned the area into a hub for crimes such as scams, gambling, and drugs.

On February 26 last year, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Ethiopian individuals who were presumed to have been confined in a scam complex in eastern Myanmar and forced into online fraud were captured by authorities after being released from the criminal complex. Photo by AP Yonhap News

Last September, they were sentenced to death in the first trial on charges including intentional murder, intentional injury, illegal detention, fraud, and operating illegal gambling establishments. The verdict was upheld in the second trial in November of the same year.

The Supreme People's Court found that the "Ming Family" criminal organization, centered around the Ming family, had established so-called "scam complexes" in Laukkai and other areas of Myanmar since 2015, engaging in crimes such as telecommunications fraud and operating illegal gambling establishments. The organization reportedly amassed over 10 billion yuan (approximately 2 trillion won) through gambling and phone scams.

Additionally, the court determined that the group committed serious violent crimes, including intentional murder, intentional injury, and illegal detention, against individuals involved in phone scams, resulting in the deaths of 14 Chinese nationals and injuring many others. The court found the evidence to be clear and convincing.

Meanwhile, in the Chinese border regions of Myanmar, the Chinese language is widely spoken and Chinese mobile phones can be used, leading to the proliferation of telecommunications fraud organizations targeting Chinese citizens. These criminal groups have lured people through job scams and human trafficking, detained them, and forced them to participate in online fraud crimes such as voice phishing and romance scams.

For several years, China has been conducting operations to eliminate online fraud criminal organizations in the relevant regions of Myanmar, repatriating tens of thousands of its nationals who were involved in such crimes back to China.