A court in eastern China has sentenced three members of a criminal gang to death for running a network of scam centers in Myanmar, according to an announcement released on Tuesday.
According to a notice from the Quanzhou Intermediate People's Court in Fujian province, the three defendants — Wei Huairen, Chen Dawei and Liao Jingfang — were convicted in connection with the so-called "Wei family criminal gang." The group was found to have engaged in a range of crimes, including drug trafficking, organizing prostitution, operating illegal casinos, telecom fraud and the killing of at least two Chinese citizens.
The court stated that Wei was one of the ringleaders of the group and was convicted on multiple charges, including murder.
In addition to the three death sentences, three other members received life imprisonment, while the remaining 55 people were handed sentences ranging from three years and three months to 24 years in prison.
According to the court, the gang's operations generated more than $1.8 billion.
State broadcaster CCTV said the same day that the gang operated 14 large-scale compounds and lured "thousands" of Chinese citizens to Myanmar with promises of high pay.
The verdict comes as Beijing intensifies its crackdown on cross-border scam networks operating in Southeast Asia, where "scam parks" have grown into a large-scale industry.
In July, the International Organization for Migration warned that online scam centers in Southeast Asia employ as many as 300,000 workers and use online ruses to defraud people in Western countries, many of them elderly.
Many of those carrying out the online scams are foreign nationals who have been trafficked and forced to work in prison-like compounds.
