Last week, a Chinese court sentenced 11 members of the Ming mafia family to death. While not many know who the Mings are in India, their arrests changed the dynamics of the conflict in post-coup Myanmar and the fate of cybersecurity in India.
It was almost three years after the military coup in Myanmar, Operation 1027 was launched against the Tatmadaw by the Three Brotherhood Alliance in the northern part of Shan state. The city of Laukkaing in the self-administered region of Kokang, in the Shan state, was home to the infamous “four main families”. These families, headed by Ming Xuechang, Wei Chaoren, Liu Zhengxiang, and Liu Guoxi (who died in 2020), were not old money elites but rather the four men who played a part in converting this dusty town into a scamsters‘ paradise. The transformation of Lukkaing began to attract many gamblers from neighbouring countries, especially China, where gambling is illegal.
The “four families” expanded their business to include trafficking, money laundering, and telecom scam centres, among other illegal activities. This, of course, would not have been possible without the support of the local police and the Tatmadaw. With online scams not just luring Chinese citizens but also these gangs attracting them with high-paying jobs in controlled environments, commonly known as “cyber slavery”, China, bearing the brunt of this wild town, began to put pressure on the Tatmadaw to rein these families in.
But with billions of dollars at stake, the Mings, among others, resisted. China, frustrated at the Tatmadaw, decided to activate the Three Brotherhood Alliance with the very successful Operation 1027. This alliance included the ethnic armed organisation (EAO) Myanmar National Democratic Alliance (MNDAA), Ta’ng National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Arakan Army (AA). The offensive resulted in the “four families” being handed over to China. This gave Beijing a foothold in the conflict in Myanmar with equal influence on some of the most important EAOs, but also on the Tatmadaw. Subsequently, the cyber scam centres on China’s borders were shut down, lifting the pressure that Beijing was feeling with thousands of Chinese youth being held against their will in these centres.
However, gambling, drug trafficking, and cyber scams are run by a web of complex and influential syndicates, making it easy for them to shift operations. Immediately, enormous complexes were set up in Myawaddy, a town in south-eastern Myanmar. It is separated from Thailand’s border town, Maesot, by a shallow Moei River that can be crossed on foot in the summer.
Myawaddy’s scam centre
While Thailand is known for its beaches, parties, shopping, and above all, a warm, welcoming approach to tourists, Maesot is different. It’s a dusty town with a quiet airport. There are no tourists, and foreigners come in groups for mostly humanitarian work. As you collect your bags and exit the airport, there is a special immigration table with officers who look at a single traveller with concern, peppered with suspicion. With kindness, they explain the dangers of crossing the Moei River and ask travellers if they have heard of the cyber scam centres in Myanmar.
The heightened security in Maesot is due to the large number of people who are trafficked by criminal gangs working for the cyber scam syndicates through Thailand. Over 5,000 people have been rescued by the Thai police. Out of those rescued in March 2025, 549 were Indians.
Ranjeet from Punjab, who had recently escaped from Maesot, said that he received a job offer on the messaging application Telegram. He was aware that he would be a part of “love scams” where they would target lonely women online and manipulate them to send money. He said he was compelled to accept this offer because his family was in financial debt.
Twenty-one-year-olds Ali and Sohail had travelled from Hyderabad. They had also been contacted on Telegram. The interviewer always kept his identity hidden during video calls. They had to buy their own tickets to Bangkok, where their handler ‘Nikhil’ picked them up. The first night, they stayed in Bangkok, and then their real journey began. According to them, they were blindfolded at times and at times asked to lie down at the back of pickup trucks. The tracks that they were taken on were through thickly forested areas. They changed 17 cars and motorbikes before they reached Myawaddy.
Once in Myawaddy, they were taken to the first cyber scam compound. The compounds are heavily guarded and self-sufficient. They have supermarkets, bars, discotheques, cinema halls, and ATMs. There are thousands of employees, both men and women, who stay in dormitories. They are given orientation workshops, tests, and their skills are tested, and there is even a Human Resources (HR) team for any complaints they may have.
While the Indian authorities are keen to repatriate victims from Myawaddy, there are many who have returned to the scam centres. Many have also risen within the centres to powerful positions of managers and recruiters.
But Ranjeet, Ali, and Sohail did not have the same experience. Homesick, feeling threatened, and their phones and passports withheld, they wanted to come back to India. They also went through the orientation workshops. But in a strange twist of fate, they failed the tests. Nikhil, their handler, who gets paid $2,000 per person trafficked, in fear of losing his commission, kept shifting them from one compound to another, in the hope that they would be hired.
The more they were shifted, the less hospitable the environment and their handler became. They heard stories of organ harvesting from rejected recruits. Fearful for their lives, they decided to escape, with no money or mobile phones; they simply got lucky. A nearby hotel owner helped them reach the Moei River and called a number that had been given to them from one of the recruits in the compounds they had transited through.
The number was of Acts of Mercy, an NGO in Maesot that has been helping victims of scam centres. Alongside Global Advance Projects, the NGO estimates the cyber scam industry to be a $3 trillion economy with over 1,00,000 people held in these compounds. They have rescued and rehabilitated thousands of victims and believe that it is the largest transnational human trafficking event in history.
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Building pressure on Delhi
Financial fraud in India is on the rise. News of digital house arrests and credit card fraud has become common. There was an estimated increase of 200 per cent from 2023 to 2024, with reported losses of over Rs 22,000 crore. But the concern is deeper with the active recruitment of Indian youth in the cyber scam industry.
This recruitment will likely grow, and the pressure will build on New Delhi just as it built on Beijing. But New Delhi should also be careful for those who have been radicalised in their time at these cyber scam centres. Not all of them are innocent victims.
Names have been changed for security reasons.
Rami Niranjan Desai is an author, anthropologist, and scholar of the Northeast region. She is a distinguished fellow at the India Foundation and has conducted extensive research in conflict areas, recently in Myanmar. She interviewed the victims in Maesot, Thailand. Her X handle is @ramindesai and she is on Instagram @raminiranjandesai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)