Notorious Digital Deception Center Linked with Asian Criminal Syndicate Targeted

The Myanmar junta claims it has captured among the most notorious fraud compounds on the border with Thailand, as it reclaims key land surrendered in the continuing civil war.

KK Park, located south of the border town of Myawaddy, has been synonymous with internet scams, financial crime and forced labor for the past five years.

Numerous individuals were lured to the complex with assurances of well-paid positions, and then forced to manage elaborate frauds, stealing billions of dollars from affected individuals all over the world.

The armed forces, previously compromised by its associations to the scam business, now claims it has occupied the facility as it extends authority around Myawaddy, the main commercial route to Thailand.

In the previous month, the military has driven back opposition fighters in various areas of Myanmar, attempting to increase the amount of territories where it can hold a planned election, starting in December.

It currently lacks authority over extensive areas of the country, which has been divided by hostilities since a military coup in February 2021.

The election has been dismissed as a sham by anti-junta elements who have vowed to obstruct it in areas they hold.

KK Park started with a lease agreement in the first part of 2020 to build an commercial zone between the Karen National Union (KNU), the ethnic insurgent group which dominates much of this territory, and a little-known HK listed firm, Huanya International.

Analysts suspect there are relationships between Huanya and a notable Asian criminal individual Wan Kuok Koi, better known as Broken Tooth, who has later backed additional scam facilities on the frontier.

The compound developed rapidly, and is easily observable from the Thailand territory of the frontier.

Those who were able to get away from it detail a harsh environment enforced on the countless people, many from continental African nations, who were confined there, compelled to work long hours, with abuse and beatings applied on those who failed to achieve targets.

A statement by the junta's communications department stated its forces had "cleared" KK Park, liberating more than 2,000 workers there and seizing 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink communication devices – extensively used by fraud centers on the Thai-Myanmar border for internet operations.

The statement blamed what it termed the "terrorist" Karen National Union and volunteer people's defence forces, which have been fighting the junta since the coup, for wrongfully controlling the region.

The regime's assertion to have shut down this notorious scam hub is almost certainly aimed at its key supporter, China.

Beijing has been pressuring the regime and the Thai administration to increase efforts to stop the unlawful businesses run by Chinese syndicates on their common boundary.

Earlier this year many of China-based employees were removed of deception facilities and transported on chartered planes back to China, after Thai authorities eliminated availability to electricity and energy supplies.

But KK Park is merely one of no fewer than 30 similar facilities located on the boundary.

Most of these are under the guardianship of local militia groups associated to the military, and the majority are presently functioning, with tens of thousands managing frauds inside them.

In fact, the support of these paramilitary forces has been critical in assisting the military drive back the KNU and additional rebel groups from area they took control of over the past two years.

The junta now dominates nearly all of the route joining Myawaddy to the rest of Myanmar, a target the regime established before it organizes the first stage of the poll in December.

It has captured Lay Kay Kaw, a modern community created for the KNU with Asian funding in 2015, a period when there had been aspirations for permanent stability in Karen State following a national peace agreement.

That forms a more important setback to the KNU than the seizure of KK Park, from which it obtained limited income, but where the bulk of the financial gains went to military-aligned paramilitary forces.

A informed source has indicated that fraud work is continuing in KK Park, and that it is possible the junta seized only part of the sprawling complex.

The insider also believes Beijing is supplying the Myanmar military inventories of Chinese people it seeks taken from the scam facilities, and sent back to stand trial in China, which may explain why KK Park was raided.