Prosecutors in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, have formally indicted key members of a notorious crime syndicate that operated in northern Myanmar’s Kokang. Charges against 21 suspects of the Bai family crime gang, including ringleaders Bai Suocheng (Bay Saw Chain) and his son Bai Yingcang (Bay Yin Chin), cover fraud, gambling, extortion, homicide, kidnapping and drug trafficking.
Members of the Bai syndicate held great political sway in Kokang, as well as employing up to 2,000 armed militiamen, allowing them to operate 41 large-scale gambling and telecom scam compounds where many other crime gangs paid them to run their own illegal activities. This included coercing Chinese nationals, confining them in the compounds and forcing them to work in the telecom scam industry through violence and abuse.
Prosecutors said the suspects were involved in more than 31,000 cases and allegedly caused the deaths of six Chinese nationals. Questionable money related to scams exceeded 10.6 billion yuan (US$1.5b) and that from illegal gambling exceeded 18 billion yuan (US$2.6b).
Chinese and Myanmar police have apprehended more than 57,000 Chinese suspects since China’s Ministry of Public Security launched a targeted campaign in 2023 against gangs involved in transnational crime.
On July 4, China, Myanmar and Thailand convened the second ministerial-level meeting on cracking down on transnational telecom and cyber scams to further strengthen regional cooperation against organized crime rings, especially those based in Myanmar’s border areas that primarily target Chinese nationals.
Old Version
