YANGON: Myanmar’s military announced it raided an internet scam hub on the Thai border, arresting nearly 350 people.
The operation in Shwe Kokko is part of a highly publicised crackdown against sprawling fraud factories in the country’s border regions.
State media The Global New Light of Myanmar reported that 346 foreign nationals were arrested during Tuesday’s operation.
Authorities also seized nearly 10,000 mobile phones used in online gambling operations.
The junta blamed armed opposition groups for allowing scam centres to operate under their protection.
It claimed to have taken action after wrestling back territorial control from these groups.
The Global New Light identified Chinese-Cambodian alleged racketeer She Zhijiang’s Yatai firm as the entity involved in running Shwe Kokko.
She was arrested in Thailand in 2022 and extradited to China last week to face allegations of involvement in online gambling and fraud operations.
Washington says he transformed a border village into Shwe Kokko, calling it “a resort city custom built for gambling, drug trafficking, prostitution, and scams targeting people around the world”.
Since a 2021 coup sparked civil war, Myanmar’s loosely governed borderlands have proven fertile ground for scam hubs.
Analysts say these compounds house scammers targeting internet users with romance and business cons worth tens of billions of dollars annually.
The junta has long been accused of turning a blind eye to these operations but has trumpeted a crackdown since February.
Experts say this followed lobbying from key military backer China, which has been increasingly irked at the number of its citizens who are both perpetrators and victims of the scams.
Some monitors describe the raids as a propaganda effort choreographed to vent pressure from Beijing without too badly denting profits that enrich the junta’s militia allies.
In October, the junta announced raids on nearby scam centre KK Park, where it says it is currently demolishing more than 600 buildings.
A highly publicised sweep starting in February saw around 7,000 alleged scammers repatriated and Thailand enact a cross-border internet blockade.
A UN report said scam victims in Southeast and East Asia alone were conned out of up to USD 37 billion in 2023.
The report noted that global losses were likely “much larger”.
