Notorious Cyber Deception Center Connected with China-based Underworld Raided

The Myanmar armed forces claims it has taken control of among the most infamous scam compounds on the boundary with Thai territory, as it retakes key territory lost in the current internal conflict.

KK Park, south of the frontier settlement of Myawaddy, has been linked with online fraud, financial crime and forced labor for the recent half-decade.

Thousands were lured to the compound with promises of well-paid employment, and then forced to operate elaborate frauds, taking countless millions of money from victims all over the globe.

The junta, historically tainted by its connections to the deception industry, now says it has seized the facility as it extends authority around Myawaddy, the main commercial route to Thailand.

In the past few weeks, the armed forces has driven back insurgents in various regions of Myanmar, attempting to expand the amount of locations where it can conduct a proposed vote, commencing in December.

It still lacks authority over large swathes of the country, which has been divided by conflict since a government overthrow in February 2021.

The poll has been rejected as a sham by anti-junta elements who have pledged to obstruct it in areas they control.

KK Park started with a property arrangement in the first part of 2020 to build an business complex between the Karen National Union (KNU), the rebel group which dominates much of this territory, and a unfamiliar Hong Kong stock market company, Huanya International.

Analysts think there are links between Huanya and a prominent Chinese mafia figure Wan Kuok Koi, better known as Broken Tooth, who has since invested in other deception facilities on the border.

The complex grew rapidly, and is easily visible from the Thai side of the frontier.

Those who were able to flee from it recount a harsh system imposed on the thousands, several from Africa-based nations, who were held there, made to labor long hours, with torture and beatings inflicted on those who failed to reach targets.

A declaration by the junta's information ministry said its personnel had "secured" KK Park, releasing in excess of 2,000 workers there and seizing 30 of Elon Musk's Starlink communication devices – widely used by fraud centers on the Thai-Myanmar border for internet functions.

The declaration faulted what it termed the "extremist" ethnic organization and volunteer resistance groups, which have been combating the military since the takeover, for illegally controlling the area.

The military's claim to have closed this notorious deception facility is very likely directed at its primary supporter, China.

Beijing has been pressing the junta and the Thai authorities to take additional measures to terminate the criminal operations managed by China-based networks on their border.

In previous months thousands of China-based laborers were extracted of deception complexes and flown on special flights back to China, after Thailand eliminated availability to electricity and petroleum supplies.

But KK Park is merely one of at least 30 similar complexes located on the boundary.

Most of these are under the guardianship of Karen militia groups associated to the regime, and many are still functioning, with numerous individuals operating frauds inside them.

In actuality, the support of these armed units has been essential in assisting the junta push back the KNU and further resistance factions from land they captured over the previous 24 months.

The armed forces now controls almost all of the road joining Myawaddy to the other parts of Myanmar, a objective the regime established before it conducts the initial phase of the vote in December.

It has captured Lay Kay Kaw, a new town founded for the KNU with Asian financial support in 2015, a era when there had been aspirations for enduring peace in the territory following a national truce.

That represents a more important blow to the KNU than the takeover of KK Park, from which it obtained a certain amount of revenue, but where the bulk of the economic advantages went to regime-supporting paramilitary forces.

A knowledgeable source has indicated that deception activities is ongoing in KK Park, and that it is likely the armed forces occupied just a portion of the sprawling complex.

The source also suspects Beijing is supplying the Myanmar junta inventories of Chinese persons it seeks removed from the deception facilities, and transported back to stand trial in China, which may account for why KK Park was targeted.