Thousands arrested by Myanmar military after raids on infamous cybercrime spots
Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said the top leaders of the Karen National Union were involved in the scam projects
Myanmar’s military has dismantled a significant online scam operation close to its border with Thailand, state media confirmed on Monday.
The crackdown led to the detention of over 2,000 individuals and the confiscation of numerous Starlink satellite internet terminals.
The country has gained notoriety as a hub for sophisticated cyberscam rings, which defraud victims globally through romantic deceptions and fraudulent investment schemes. These illicit centres are also infamous for luring foreign workers with false job promises, subsequently holding them captive and coercing them into criminal enterprises.
Scam operations were in the international spotlight last week when the United States and Britain enacted sanctions against organizers of a major Cambodian cyberscam gang, and its alleged ringleader was indicted by a federal court in New York.
According to a report in Monday’s Myanma Alinn newspaper, the army raided KK Park, a well-documented cybercrime center, as part of operations starting in early September to suppress online fraud, illegal gambling, and cross-border cybercrime.
It published photos displaying seized Starlink equipment and soldiers said to be carrying out the raid, though it was unclear when exactly they were taken.
KK Park is located on the outskirts of Myawaddy, a major trading town on the border with Thailand in Myanmar’s Kayin state. The area is only loosely under the control of Myanmar’s military government, and also falls under the influence of ethnic minority militias.
Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for the military government, charged in a statement Monday night that the top leaders of the Karen National Union, an armed ethnic organization opposed to army rule, were involved in the scam projects at KK Park.
The allegation was previously made based on claims that a company backed by the Karen group allowed the land to be leased. However, the Karen, who are part of the larger armed resistance movement in Myanmar's civil war, deny any involvement in the scams.
Myanma Alinn said the army ascertained that more than 260 buildings were unregistered, and seized equipment, including 30 sets of Starlink satellite internet terminals. It said 2,198 individuals were detained though it did not give their nationalities.
Starlink is part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX company and the terminals link to its satellites. It does not have licensed operations in Myanmar, but at least hundreds of terminals have been smuggled into the Southeast Asian nation.
The company could not be immediately reached for comment Monday but its policy bans “conduct that is defamatory, fraudulent, obscene, or deceptive.”
There have been previous crackdowns on cyberscam operations in Myanmar earlier this year and in 2023.
Facing pressure from China, Thailand and Myanmar’s governments launched an operation in February in which they released thousands of trafficked people from scam compounds, working with the ethnic armed groups that rule Myanmar’s border areas.