4 more Myanmar scam centre leaders executed in China crackdown

China has executed four individuals convicted of leading parts of a sprawling criminal syndicate running scam, gambling, and other illicit operations out of northern Myanmar, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court announced Monday. The executions were carried out after the Supreme People’s Court approved the death sentences of the four men, who had been convicted in November 2025 on charges including intentional homicide, telecom fraud, drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, forced prostitution, and operating illegal casinos .

The four were members of the notorious Bai family criminal group , which established multiple industrial parks and compounds in the Kokang region of Myanmar bordering China to run scam operations that defrauded victims of more than 29 billion yuan (about USD 4.2 billion) and caused the deaths of six Chinese citizens.

The group’s designated leader, Bai Suocheng, had been sentenced to death on 3 November 2025 but died of illness on 11 November 2025 before his execution could be carried out . Despite his death, the syndicate continued its criminal operations under other members and sub-leaders, running scam centres, gambling operations, and other illicit activities, including telecom fraud, kidnappings, extortion, forced prostitution, and drug trafficking.

Other key defendants included Bai Yingcang, who was found to have colluded in trafficking and manufacturing roughly 11 tonnes of methamphetamine as part of the syndicate’s operations. After the Bai convictions, the Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court dismissed the defendants’ appeals in December 2025 and upheld the original rulings, which the Supreme People’s Court subsequently approved before issuing execution orders that were carried out this month. Relatives of the condemned reportedly met with them prior to their executions.

The executions announced Monday follow an earlier round of capital punishments on 29 January 2026, when 11 people linked to another Myanmar-based syndicate, the “Ming family criminal group,” were executed by a court in Wenzhou for similar crimes, including telecom and online scams, murders, and unlawful detention , linked to the deaths of more than a dozen Chinese citizens.

Authorities said these crime networks extended beyond Chinese-speaking victims, targeting people worldwide through fake romances, cryptocurrency scams, and other sophisticated frauds. Thousands of workers, some trafficked, some willing, carried out operations generating multibillion‑dollar illicit revenue annually.

The crackdown is part of a broader campaign by Beijing and regional partners to dismantle scam centres across Southeast Asia. Cooperation with authorities in Myanmar, Thailand, and neighbouring states has led to the repatriation of tens of thousands of suspects, arrests of key operators, liberation of exploited workers, and destruction of scam facilities near border cities such as Myawaddy and Laukkai.

Analysts note these hubs function like fortified compounds and are major sources of transnational crime. Enforcement actions have uncovered large numbers of trafficked workers from China, Africa, Southeast Asia, and beyond, often held under coercion.

Despite the crackdown, around 100 key fugitives remain at large, while more than 57,000 suspected participants have been arrested or repatriated. Chinese authorities emphasize that the executed syndicate members “ committed exceptionally heinous crimes with particularly serious circumstances and consequences ” and vow to continue pursuing leaders and participants of such networks.