BEIJING (AFP): China sentenced five people to death on Tuesday for their involvement in a violent criminal gang with fraud operations in Myanmar's Kokang region along the border, state media reported.
Scam compounds have flourished in Myanmar's lawless borderlands, staffed by foreigners -- many of them Chinese -- who often say they were trafficked and forced to swindle people online, part of a multibillion-dollar illicit industry.
Beijing has stepped up cooperation with Southeast Asian nations in recent months to crack down on the compounds, and thousands of people have been repatriated to China.
The crimes of the five people sentenced Tuesday had led to the "deaths of six Chinese nationals, one Chinese national's suicide and injuries to several others", official news agency Xinhua said, citing a court in the southern city of Shenzhen.
"The criminals were found to have built 41 compounds in the Kokang region," said Xinhua, adding that their activities included "telecom fraud, operating gambling dens, intentional homicide, organising and coercing prostitution (and) organising others to illegally cross national borders".
The Shenzhen court also handed two other defendants death sentences with two-year reprieves -- a verdict that often results in life imprisonment.
Five defendants were given life imprisonment, while sentences ranging from three to 20 years were given to nine others.
In April, the United Nations warned that Chinese and Southeast Asian gangs are raking in tens of billions of dollars a year through cyber scam centres.
The industry was spreading to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and some Pacific Islands, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said.
The UN estimates that hundreds of thousands of people are working in scam centres globally.
In late September, a Chinese court issued death sentences to 16 members of a family-run gang with operations in Kokang -- five with two-year reprieves. - AFP
