Notorious Digital Scam Center Connected with Asian Criminal Syndicate Raided

The Myanmar armed forces claims it has taken control of one of the most infamous deception facilities on the frontier with Thailand, as it reclaims key territory previously lost in the continuing domestic strife.

KK Park, positioned south of the border town of Myawaddy, has been associated with internet scams, money laundering and people smuggling for the previous five-year period.

Numerous individuals were attracted to the compound with guarantees of high-income jobs, and then coerced to operate elaborate frauds, taking countless millions of currency from targets all over the world.

The military, historically tainted by its associations to the deception operations, now says it has taken the compound as it extends authority around Myawaddy, the key trade link to Thailand.

In the past few weeks, the junta has pushed back opposition fighters in multiple regions of Myanmar, attempting to expand the quantity of places where it can hold a planned vote, starting in December.

It currently hasn't mastered large swathes of the state, which has been torn apart by fighting since a government overthrow in February 2021.

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

KK Park began with a rental contract in the first part of 2020 to build an business complex between the KNU (KNU), the rebel group which controls much of this area, and a little-known HK publicly traded company, Huanya International.

Researchers suspect there are links between Huanya and a notable Asian underworld individual Wan Kuok Koi, often referred to as Broken Tooth, who has later invested in other fraud hubs on the boundary.

The compound expanded quickly, and is easily visible from the Thai side of the frontier.

Those who succeeded to get away from it describe a harsh environment imposed on the numerous individuals, many from African countries, who were held there, made to labor excessive periods, with torture and beatings administered on those who did not manage to reach targets.

A announcement by the regime's communications department claimed its troops had "liberated" KK Park, releasing more than 2,000 laborers there and confiscating 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink communication devices – widely used by deception centers on the Myanmar-Thai boundary for online activities.

The statement blamed what it termed the "extremist" KNU and volunteer people's defence forces, which have been opposing the junta since the coup, for wrongfully holding the territory.

The junta's declaration to have dismantled this well-known scam hub is probably aimed at its main backer, China.

Beijing has been pressuring the regime and the Thailand administration to take additional measures to stop the unlawful businesses run by Asian networks on their border.

Previously in the year thousands of China-based workers were taken out of deception complexes and flown on chartered planes back to China, after Thailand cut access to electricity and energy provisions.

But KK Park is only one of no fewer than 30 similar compounds located on the frontier.

Most of these are under the protection of Karen armed units associated to the military, and the majority are currently active, with tens of thousands running schemes inside them.

In fact, the support of these militia groups has been critical in assisting the military drive back the KNU and other rebel groups from area they captured over the recent two-year period.

The military now governs almost all of the route joining Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a goal the military set itself before it conducts the initial phase of the vote in December.

It has captured Lay Kay Kaw, a modern community founded for the KNU with Asian funding in 2015, a time when there had been hopes for lasting peace in the territory following a countrywide truce.

That represents a more significant blow to the KNU than the takeover of KK Park, from which it did get some income, but where most of the monetary gains were directed to regime-supporting paramilitary forces.

A informed insider has indicated that deception operations is persisting in KK Park, and that it is possible the military took control of merely a section of the large-scale compound.

The source also thinks Beijing is supplying the Myanmar armed forces rosters of China-based people it desires extracted from the fraud compounds, and returned back to be prosecuted in China, which may explain why KK Park was targeted.