A Chinese court has sentenced five top members of an infamous Myanmar mafia to death as Beijing continues its crackdown on scam operations in South East Asia. In all, 21 Bai family members and associates were convicted of fraud, homicide, injury, and other crimes, according to a report from state media on the court's website. The family is among a handful of mafias that rose to power in the 2000s and transformed the impoverished backwater town of Laukkaing into a lucrative hub of casinos and red-light districts.
In recent years, they pivoted to scams in which thousands of trafficked workers, many of them Chinese, are trapped, abused, and forced to defraud others in criminal operations worth billions. Mafia boss Bai Suocheng and his son Bai Yingcang were among the five men sentenced to death by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. Three others, Yang Liqiang, Hu Xiaojiang, and Chen Guangyi, received similar sentences.
The crackdown has resulted in two more members receiving suspended death sentences, while five received life imprisonment, and nine others were handed jail sentences ranging from three to 20 years. The Bai family, which controlled its own militia and established 41 compounds for cyberscam activities and casinos, was linked to crimes involving over 29 billion Chinese yuan ($4.1bn; £3.1bn) and led to multiple deaths and injuries among victims.
The harsh penalties are part of China's ongoing initiative to eradicate vast scam networks across South East Asia and serve as a stern warning to other criminal syndicates. This is not the first such sentence; a Chinese court recently sentenced 11 members of another prominent family involved in parallel operations.
The family's power peaked with the assistance of Myanmar's military chief, Min Aung Hlaing, who aimed to install allies in Laukkaing. Today, investigators and authorities state that such severe government actions hope to remind any criminal figures that horrendous crimes against the Chinese people will result in consequences.
In recent years, they pivoted to scams in which thousands of trafficked workers, many of them Chinese, are trapped, abused, and forced to defraud others in criminal operations worth billions. Mafia boss Bai Suocheng and his son Bai Yingcang were among the five men sentenced to death by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. Three others, Yang Liqiang, Hu Xiaojiang, and Chen Guangyi, received similar sentences.
The crackdown has resulted in two more members receiving suspended death sentences, while five received life imprisonment, and nine others were handed jail sentences ranging from three to 20 years. The Bai family, which controlled its own militia and established 41 compounds for cyberscam activities and casinos, was linked to crimes involving over 29 billion Chinese yuan ($4.1bn; £3.1bn) and led to multiple deaths and injuries among victims.
The harsh penalties are part of China's ongoing initiative to eradicate vast scam networks across South East Asia and serve as a stern warning to other criminal syndicates. This is not the first such sentence; a Chinese court recently sentenced 11 members of another prominent family involved in parallel operations.
The family's power peaked with the assistance of Myanmar's military chief, Min Aung Hlaing, who aimed to install allies in Laukkaing. Today, investigators and authorities state that such severe government actions hope to remind any criminal figures that horrendous crimes against the Chinese people will result in consequences.
