BEIJING — A Chinese court has begun hearing charges against 23 members of a notorious Myanmar-based telecoms fraud gang accused of a range of crimes.
The suspects are associated with the Ming family gang and were charged with 11 crimes - including telecommunications fraud, murder, intentional injury, illegal detention, extortion, running a gambling den, organising prostitution and drug trafficking - state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Wednesday.
According to CCTV, prosecutors in Wenzhou in China's eastern Zhejiang province alleged the Ming family "leveraged their influence and armed forces" to set up "industrial parks" and had colluded with financial backers on various crimes since 2015. As a result, 14 Chinese were killed and six wounded, and billions of yuan was lost to fraud.
They alleged the gang's operations were centred in Kokang, in Myanmar's northern Shan state, which shares a border with China's southwestern Yunnan province.
Prosecutors said the gang established a network of industrial estates and compounds that housed thousands of scammers and used a range of tactics to target their victims, including fake investment schemes, phishing scams and extortion.
Prosecutors said there was evidence that in October 2023 Ming's gang killed Chinese captives who tried to flee as they were being moved to another compound.
The Ming crime group was led by Ming Xuechang, a Chinese-Myanmar national who was a member of Myanmar's Shan state legislature and a former member of the Kokang leadership committee. He died in an apparent suicide in November 2023 after being detained by Chinese police.
Ming Xuechang. (File photo)
His son Ming Guoping, also known as Mg Myin Shaut Phyin; daughter Ming Julan, or Myin Shut Lan; and granddaughter Ming Zhenzhen, or Ma Thiri Maung - who are all believed to be ethnic Chinese citizens of Myanmar - were handed over to Chinese authorities.
Ming Guoping was a leader of the Kokang Border Guard Force, which operates under the command of Myanmar's military, a position the gang "exploited" to protect and profit from fraud operations, according to Chinese state media.
The Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court heard the case regarding the family from Friday to Wednesday before adjourning and declaring it would announce the verdict later.
The case is China's latest effort to crack down on cross-border telecoms syndicates that it says have caused significant financial and emotional distress to countless Chinese citizens. It has targeted suspects at their bases in the so-called Golden Triangle.
Since July 2023, China's Ministry of Public Security has launched a nationwide crackdown on telecoms fraud that targets Chinese citizens and is collaborating with its Southeast Asian neighbours, including Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand.
By December last year, Myanmar authorities had handed over more than 53,000 suspects to China that a CCTV report described as "dismantling numerous overseas scam operations and significantly curbing the activities of criminal groups".
On Tuesday, Thai police said they had made 10 arrests, including of Chinese nationals, related to a US$187 million international fraud ring. The gang is accused of swindling millions of dollars from victims in cryptocurrency and is believed to have links to scam centres in Cambodia and Myanmar.
It followed a visit by a delegation from China's Ministry of Public Security who went to Thailand last month to discuss joint operations and the establishment of coordination centres to tackle scam gangs.
