FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
China has executed 11 members of the notorious Ming family crime gang, which ran mafia-like fraud centers in Myanmar and killed workers who tried to escape, Chinese state media reported on Thursday.
The Ming family was one of the so-called Four Families of northern Myanmar, crime syndicates accused of running hundreds of groups involved in online fraud, prostitution and drug production, and whose members held prominent positions in local government and militias linked to Myanmar's ruling junta.
The Xinhua news agency reported that the 11 executed people were sentenced to death in September after being found guilty of crimes including murder, illegal detention and fraud.
Two of the defendants appealed and the case went to the Supreme People's Court, China's highest court, which upheld the initial ruling, according to Xinhua.
The crime family, headed by Ming Xuechang, had long been linked to a notorious compound called the Crouching Tiger Villa in Kokang, an autonomous region on Myanmar's border with China.
At its peak, the group had 10,000 people working to commit fraud and other crimes, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Kokang's capital, Laukkaing, was at the heart of a multibillion-dollar fraud industry that took root in illegal areas of Myanmar, where trafficked workers were used to defraud foreigners with sophisticated online schemes.
After years of complaints from relatives of workers at the trafficking fraud centers and growing international media attention, Beijing cracked down on the complexes in 2023.
That November, China issued arrest warrants for the family members, charging them with fraud, murder and trafficking, and placed rewards of between $14,000 and $70,000 for their capture.
The family head Ming Xuechang, who had also served as a member of Myanmar's state parliament, later killed himself while in custody, Chinese state media reported at the time.
His son Ming Guoping, who was a leader in the junta-linked Kokang Border Guard Force, and his niece Ming Zhenzhen were among those executed, Xinhua reported on Thursday.
Before they were executed, they met with close relatives, the report said.
The Ming family union also conspired with the leader of another union, Wu Hongming, who was also executed, to intentionally kill, injure and detain rogue workers, resulting in the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens, according to Xinhua.
In an incident in October 2023, four people were killed when members of the group allegedly opened fire on people at a fraud compound. In a report on the shooting, Chinese state media CCTV reported that the group was transferring workers from the cyber fraud park under armed guard after being tipped off that police were planning a raid on the compound.
Fraudulent gangs in Southeast Asia steal more than $43 billion a year, according to the United States Institute of Peace, founded by the US Congress.
In Myanmar, rogue groups have been sheltered by the corruption and lawlessness that have long plagued the country's border regions. The criminal syndicates and the armed groups that harbor them have also exploited nearly five years of devastating civil war to expand their businesses.
When asked about the executions on Thursday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing would continue to intensify efforts to "eradicate the scourge of gambling and fraud."
Lini një Përgjigje