Myanmar’s military government has seized close to 10,000 mobile phones and related equipment used in online scam operations as part of an escalating crackdown on criminal syndicates operating near the Thai border, according to reporting from Bloomberg. The sweeping raids target long-entrenched scam centers that have flourished in semi-lawless border zones.
Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun said Wednesday that searches and arrests have expanded northward to include notorious hubs such as Shwe Kokko and Chongkhaed, alongside demolition work in KK Park — a complex long linked to cyber-fraud networks. Authorities have also begun detaining people attempting to flee across the border into Thailand.
During Tuesday’s operation in Shwe Kokko, part of the border town of Myawady, Myanmar security forces detained 346 foreign workers allegedly involved in the scam schemes. Since October 2023, approximately 68,000 nationals from 52 countries who entered Myanmar illegally — mostly via Thailand — have been repatriated, Bloomberg reported.
The junta has begun tearing down hundreds of buildings in KK Park using heavy machinery and explosives, a move that has drawn protests from Thailand, which claims debris landed on its territory. Zaw Min Tun dismissed the allegation, saying no debris had crossed the frontier or fallen into the Moei River, which separates the two countries.
He said Myanmar is working with five regional governments — China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam — in efforts to dismantle telecom fraud and online gambling operations that have proliferated across the Mekong region.
The crackdown comes as the US last week launched a new “Scam Center Strike Force” to confront transnational crime groups behind large-scale fraud schemes in Southeast Asia, which US authorities estimate are stealing nearly $10 billion annually from Americans. Criminal organizations run these operations from fortified compounds in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, generating billions in illicit revenue. Victims are often lured into transferring money to fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms — many of them hosted by US-based companies — before the funds are laundered overseas.
