China sentences 11 members of Myanmar’s Ming mafia family to death in $1.4b scam crackdown

The sentences

• 11 sentenced to death: The Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court condemned to death Ming Guoping, Ming Zhenzhen, Zhou Weichang, and eight others.

• Other punishments: Five more received suspended death sentences (usually commuted to life in prison), 11 were jailed for life, and the remaining defendants were handed prison terms ranging from five to 24 years.

• Total convicted: 39 Ming family members were sentenced on Monday.

The crimes

• Since 2015, the Ming syndicate and allied groups ran illegal casinos, online scams, drug trafficking, and prostitution.

• Their operations generated more than 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion).

• Workers recruited — many through false job offers — were trafficked and imprisoned in scam compounds.

• At least 10 workers were killed while trying to escape, and others were beaten or tortured.

• One notorious site, Crouching Tiger Villa, became a symbol of cruelty where enslaved workers were forced to run “romance-investment scams” targeting global victims.

The rise and fall of the Ming family

• The Mings were among four powerful clans in Laukkaing, a Chinese-speaking enclave along the Myanmar-China border.

• Originally fuelled by gambling demand from China, the town’s casinos evolved into fronts for money laundering and cyber scams.

• At their peak, Ming-run compounds held 10,000 workers, most of them Chinese nationals trapped in forced labour.

• In 2023, after Beijing issued arrest warrants, Myanmar authorities cracked down, arresting key family members and extraditing them to China.

• Patriarch Ming Xuechang reportedly committed suicide before capture.

Beijing’s cross-border campaign

• China has treated scam syndicates as a national security threat.

• Joint operations with Myanmar and Thailand earlier this year freed more than 7,000 enslaved workers.

• Beijing has leaned on regional governments to dismantle centres; in Shan State, Chinese pressure was seen as crucial to an insurgent offensive that toppled Myanmar’s military control over Laukkaing in 2023.

• Similar pressure has pushed Thailand to crack down on scam dens along its border, though many networks have since shifted operations to Cambodia.

A $40 billion global 'scamdemic'

• According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, online scam centres across Southeast Asia generate more than $40 billion annually.

• These networks run everything from fake investment schemes to romance scams, often targeting victims in China but also across the US, Europe, and the Middle East.

• The industry is heavily reliant on trafficked labour, with victims lured by fake job ads and then forcibly confined, beaten, or killed if they disobey.

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