Notorious Digital Deception Hub Connected with Asian Mafia Targeted

The Myanmar junta claims it has taken control of one of the most well-known scam compounds on the boundary with Thailand, as it retakes key territory lost in the continuing domestic strife.

KK Park, located south of the border town of Myawaddy, has been associated with digital deception, cash cleaning and people smuggling for the previous five-year period.

Thousands were attracted to the compound with assurances of high-income jobs, and then compelled to run complex schemes, stealing substantial sums of money from victims all over the planet.

The armed forces, previously compromised by its connections to the scam business, now says it has occupied the complex as it expands control around Myawaddy, the primary commercial connection to Thailand.

In the previous month, the military has driven back insurgents in multiple regions of Myanmar, seeking to expand the number of territories where it can hold a planned vote, commencing in December.

It currently lacks authority over significant territories of the state, which has been torn apart by conflict since a military coup in February 2021.

The vote has been disregarded as a sham by opposition forces who have pledged to prevent it in regions they hold.

KK Park started with a rental contract in early 2020 to build an business complex between the KNU (KNU), the ethnic insurgent organization which dominates much of this territory, and a little-known HK stock market corporation, Huanya International.

Researchers believe there are links between Huanya and a prominent China-based criminal figure Wan Kuok Koi, more commonly called Broken Tooth, who has since backed other scam centers on the border.

The compound expanded rapidly, and is readily visible from the Thailand territory of the frontier.

Those who managed to get away from it recount a violent system imposed on the countless people, numerous from African countries, who were detained there, made to operate long hours, with abuse and assaults applied on those who did not manage to reach objectives.

A announcement by the regime's information ministry said its personnel had "secured" KK Park, freeing more than 2,000 workers there and taking possession of 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink communication devices – extensively used by deception hubs on the border frontier for digital functions.

The statement accused what it termed the "militant" ethnic organization and local resistance groups, which have been opposing the military since the takeover, for illegally occupying the region.

The military's declaration to have dismantled this infamous scam facility is very likely aimed at its main backer, China.

Beijing has been urging the junta and the Thailand administration to increase efforts to terminate the criminal activities run by Chinese organizations on their border.

Earlier this year thousands of China-based workers were extracted of fraud complexes and flown on arranged aircraft back to China, after Thai authorities eliminated supply to power and energy provisions.

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

A large portion of these are under the protection of Karen militia groups associated to the military, and the majority are still active, with numerous individuals managing scams inside them.

In reality, the backing of these armed units has been essential in enabling the armed forces push back the KNU and further resistance organizations from area they captured over the previous 24 months.

The military now controls nearly all of the road linking Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a target the regime set itself before it holds the initial phase of the election in December.

It has captured Lay Kay Kaw, a recent settlement founded for the KNU with Japan-based financial support in 2015, a time when there had been aspirations for enduring peace in the Karen region following a national truce.

That represents a more substantial defeat to the KNU than the takeover of KK Park, from which it received a certain amount of revenue, but where most of the monetary benefits ended up with regime-supporting militias.

A well-placed insider has suggested that deception operations is persisting in KK Park, and that it is possible the military occupied just a portion of the large-scale compound.

The source also believes Beijing is giving the Myanmar armed forces lists of China-based persons it desires removed from the scam compounds, and transported back to face trial in China, which may clarify why KK Park was raided.