Renowned Online Deception Complex Linked with China-based Criminal Syndicate Targeted

The Myanmar military claims it has taken control of among the most notorious deception complexes on the border with Thailand, as it reclaims key area lost in the ongoing internal conflict.

KK Park, located south of the border town of Myawaddy, has been synonymous with internet scams, financial crime and human trafficking for the recent half-decade.

Thousands were enticed to the facility with guarantees of well-paid positions, and then coerced to manage sophisticated scams, extracting substantial sums of dollars from targets across the world.

The military, long compromised by its links to the fraud business, now claims it has seized the complex as it increases dominance around Myawaddy, the key commercial link to Thailand.

In the past few weeks, the junta has pushed back opposition fighters in several areas of Myanmar, aiming to maximise the number of places where it can conduct a scheduled election, beginning in December.

It still hasn't mastered significant territories of the country, which has been torn apart by hostilities since a government overthrow in February 2021.

The vote has been disregarded as a fake by anti-junta elements who have sworn to block it in regions they control.

KK Park began with a rental contract in early 2020 to establish an industrial park between the KNU (KNU), the rebel group which dominates much of this region, and a unfamiliar HK publicly traded firm, Huanya International.

Investigators believe there are links between Huanya and a notable Asian underworld figure Wan Kuok Koi, often referred to as Broken Tooth, who has subsequently funded further deception hubs on the boundary.

The complex expanded quickly, and is clearly visible from the Thai border of the boundary.

Those who were able to get away from it detail a harsh system established on the thousands, numerous from continental African countries, who were confined there, compelled to operate long hours, with torture and beatings inflicted on those who did not manage to reach targets.

A announcement by the regime's information ministry stated its troops had "cleared" KK Park, freeing over 2,000 laborers there and taking possession of 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink communication devices – widely used by fraud centers on the border boundary for internet activities.

The statement blamed what it called the "terrorist" Karen National Union and volunteer militia units, which have been combating the regime since the overthrow, for unlawfully holding the region.

The military's assertion to have closed this well-known fraud facility is probably directed at its main patron, China.

Beijing has been urging the military and the Thai authorities to do more to terminate the illegal businesses run by China-based organizations on their common boundary.

In previous months many of Asian employees were taken out of deception compounds and transported on chartered planes back to China, after Thailand restricted availability to power and energy provisions.

But KK Park is only one of no fewer than 30 analogous compounds positioned on the border.

A large portion of these are under the guardianship of Karen militia groups associated to the military, and most are currently active, with tens of thousands running scams inside them.

In actuality, the support of these armed units has been essential in enabling the junta repel the KNU and other opposition factions from area they seized over the previous 24 months.

The armed forces now dominates nearly all of the route linking Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a goal the junta determined before it conducts the first stage of the poll in December.

It has taken Lay Kay Kaw, a new town founded for the KNU with Japan-based funding in 2015, a time when there had been hopes for enduring peace in the territory following a nationwide ceasefire.

That forms a more significant setback to the KNU than the seizure of KK Park, from which it did get some income, but where the majority of the economic benefits went to military-aligned militias.

A knowledgeable contact has revealed that deception activities is continuing in KK Park, and that it is likely the junta took control of only part of the sprawling compound.

The source also suspects Beijing is giving the Burmese junta inventories of China-based persons it wants taken from the deception complexes, and transported back to face trial in China, which may explain why KK Park was raided.