China Sentences 16 Myanmar-Linked Gang Members to Death

1 criminals from gangs based in northern Myanmar were sentenced to death on September 29, 2025, on multiple criminal charges, according to the verdict of a local court in Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. Image via People's Daily.

A Chinese court sentenced to death on Monday 16 members of a family-run criminal gang that established deadly scam centers in Myanmar’s Kokang region on the border with China, among other crimes.

Scam compounds have flourished in Myanmar’s lawless borderlands, staffed by foreigners — many of them Chinese — who say they were trafficked and forced to swindle people online, part of a multibillion-dollar illicit industry.

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by Eric Olander

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