The Karen National Union on Tuesday called for international cooperation to investigate a scam compound it recently seized from the junta-affiliated Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA).
The KNU and allied People’s Defense Forces last Friday seized the scam compound at Min Let Pan village on the Thai border in southern Myawaddy Township during battles with the regime and allied DKBA troops.
“Without swift and serious international engagement, the world risks missing a critical opportunity to use this scam compound as a landmark case study for international investigations into transnational scam syndicates that threaten many countries,” the KNU said in a statement.
It said an initial investigation found that the “multi-layered, gated compound” housed “large-scale illicit operations” involving some 2,000 foreign nationals from a dozen countries.
The KNU seized and dismantled computers and IT equipment, it said.
Some scam workers were found in possession of lethal weapons, posing a serious risk to unarmed KNU personnel who were investigating and other vulnerable workers, it added.
KNU spokesman Padoh Saw Taw Nee told The Irrawaddy that fights had broken out among foreign nationals confined in the compound on Tuesday, resulting in the death of a Chinese national and two others suffering injuries.
Hundreds of foreign workers have since been handed over to Thai authorities across the border, according to the ethnic rebels.
The assessment team interviewed suspected site managers, so-called “little bosses,” and forced laborers. “Several workers were uncooperative; some attempted to bribe KNU personnel to allow them to flee into Myanmar and avoid transfer to Thai authorities,” it said.
One Filipino national told investigators he had been assigned specifically to target Americans and claimed to have netted at least US$ 500,000 a month. Another testified he had never been paid.
But the KNU noted that further investigation is required to verify the claims.
It said that dismantling an operation of this magnitude requires serious, coordinated international cooperation as effective investigation and evidence collection are beyond the capacity of the KNU alone, warning that each new day increases the risks to life and limb of both KNU personnel and the foreign nationals held at Min Let Pan.
It promised to make all the material evidence seized from the scammers available to professional crime scene investigators.
The DKBA split from the KNU in 1994 and is a signatory to the National Ceasefire Agreement with Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government in 2015.
Only two weeks ago, DKBA leaders were sanctioned by the U.S. government for their involvement in scam operations in their territory.
Myawaddy has become notorious for hosting Chinese-run scam hubs along the Thai border, protected by junta-affiliated militias. The operations are estimated to defraud victims worldwide of more than US$35 billion annually.
After growing international pressure, the Myanmar junta raided a notorious KK Park scam hub under the protection of BGF in Myawaddy in October and has been dynamiting buildings there. Raids on the notorious Shwe Kokko business park followed last week.
But local witnesses and international experts said the junta’s so-called raids on the scam hubs in recent days are a staged PR stunt to deflect international pressure.
Indeed, the DKBA and BGF reportedly evacuated the Chinese kingpins with their own trucks before the raids.
The KNU also reportedly profited from the scams by leasing land to the criminal syndicates but says it only dealt with a Thai intermediary and withdrew from the project in 2022.
Han Toe Zan contributed to this story.
