YANGON: Myanmar’s military said Sunday it was demolishing nearly 150 buildings in a crackdown on a notorious Internet scam compound bordering Thailand — including a gym, a spa and a karaoke parlour.
Sprawling fraud factories have boomed in war-torn Myanmar’s loosely governed border regions, housing workers targeting unsuspecting Internet users with romance and business cons worth tens of billions of dollars annually.
Many workers are trafficked into the Internet sweatshops, but others go willingly to the compounds which are often furnished with luxury amenities for criminal bosses and their high-earning staff.
Last month Myanmar’s military announced a raid on infamous scam center KK Park — discovering more than 2,000 scammers and sending 1,500 people fleeing over the border to Thailand.
In an update in state mouthpiece newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar the junta said it found 148 buildings including dormitories, a four-floor hospital and two-story karaoke complex.
“101 buildings have been demolished, and the remaining 47 buildings are in progress,” said the newspaper.
AFP was not able to immediately verify the claims, but locals in Myanmar and over the border in Thailand have reported hearing intermittent explosions since the Myanmar military raid began.
Experts say the junta raids are likely limited, choreographed and intentionally publicized as the military walks a tightrope trying to alleviate international pressure to crack down on scam centers without too badly denting profits.
China is a key military backer of the junta, but analysts say Beijing is increasingly irate at the rampant scams targeting and enlisting its citizens.
But cracking down too hard would erode profits enriching militias the junta relies on as key allies in the civil war which has consumed the country since it snatched power in a 2021 coup, monitors say.
Back in February a pressure campaign led by China saw some 7,000 scam workers repatriated in a highly-publicized exodus from Myanmar, while Thailand enacted a cross-border Internet blockade in a bid to throttle off the fraud factories.
The military announced initial raids on KK Park on October 19 after an AFP investigation revealed centers including KK Park were expanding despite the apparent crackdown — with Starlink satellite Internet receivers installed en masse to skirt the Thai web cut-off.
After the AFP investigation Starlink parent company SpaceX said it had cut signal to more than 2,500 satellite Internet terminals in the vicinity of suspected Myanmar scam centers.
Myanmar junta says demolishing 150 scam hub buildings
https://arab.news/j5wwf
Myanmar junta says demolishing 150 scam hub buildings
- Last month Myanmar’s military announced a raid on infamous scam center KK Park, discovering more than 2,000 scammers and sending 1,500 people fleeing over the border to Thailand
Sweden seizes false-flagged ship with suspected stolen Ukrainian grain
- The Russian embassy in Stockholm said it had been informed by the Swedish coast guard that 10 of the crew were Russian citizens
STOCKHOLM: Police in Sweden have seized a false-flagged cargo ship off its southern coast believed to belong to Russia’s shadow fleet and suspected of transporting stolen Ukrainian grain, authorities said Saturday.
The 96-meter (315-foot) Caffa left Casablanca in Morocco on February 24 and was headed for Saint Petersburg, Russia when armed Swedish police boarded it on Friday off the southern town of Trelleborg.
“The vessel is on the Ukraine sanctions list. Information indicates that it has essentially been used to transport grain that is stolen, as we understand it, from Ukraine,” the coast guard’s acting head of operations, Daniel Stenling, told a press conference.
“We have been able to establish that the vessel is sailing under a false flag. She is registered in Guinea, but that registration is in fact false,” he added.
“A majority” of the 11 crew members were Russian, Stenling said.
The Russian embassy in Stockholm said it had been informed by the Swedish coast guard that 10 of the crew were Russian citizens.
“The Russian embassy in Sweden is in contact with the competent Swedish authorities and is ready, if necessary, to provide consular assistance to the Russian nationals among the crew,” it wrote on Telegram.
One crew member was under investigation for violation of the maritime code on seaworthiness and on ship safety, Stenling said, refusing to disclose the suspect’s identity or crew role.
“The investigative measures we have taken so far reinforce our suspicions and our view that there are extensive maritime safety deficiencies on this vessel,” he said.
The Swedish Transport Agency was to inspect the ship and determine whether it was seaworthy and authorized to continue its journey.
- ‘Risk of accidents’ -
Moscow’s “shadow fleet” consists of vessels with opaque ownership used to skirt Western sanctions.
“It’s a problem for us that we are seeing more ships that don’t respect the law of the sea,” Stenling said, noting that “the risk of accidents increases when ships are not certified.”
“We might not even know what kind of crew is on board, what kind of skills they have, what certifications they hold, and they often lack insurance if something were to happen,” he added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga on Saturday thanked Sweden.
“Collective action against such vessels is gaining momentum. This is a welcome development,” he wrote on X.
“Sanctions work when they are strictly enforced. Together, we must stop the activities of Russia’s shadow fleet to protect Europe’s security and environment.”
