China has carried out the execution of 11 members of the infamous Ming family.
A clan once synonymous with scam empires along the China-Myanmar border.
The move, reported by state media, closes the chapter on one of the region’s most notorious criminal dynasties.
But it also raises an uncomfortable question: how did this happen in plain sight for so long?
For years, the Ming family ruled Laukkaing, a dusty Myanmar border town they turned into a neon-lit maze of casinos, online scam centres and red-light districts.
Behind the glamour was something far darker.
Thousands of people — many from China — were trafficked into these compounds, beaten and detained. Forced to scam victims overseas.
Scam Empire Falls
Their downfall came in 2023, not from a police raid, but from Myanmar’s civil war.
Ethnic militias seized Laukkaing and handed the Mings over to Chinese authorities.
A court in Zhejiang later convicted them of crimes ranging from fraud and illegal detention to homicide.
According to China’s top court, the group raked in more than 10bn yuan over eight years and was linked to at least 14 deaths.
Appeals were rejected. Sentences were final.
Beijing had warned Myanmar for years to crack down.
It took chaos, not cooperation, to end the scam empire. Justice, it seems, arrived — just not the way anyone expected.
