China executes four more in pig butchering scam crackdown

China has executed another four members of a powerful Myanmar-based crime family that oversaw 41 pig butchering scam compounds across Southeast Asia.

The executed individuals were members of the Bai family, a particularly powerful gang that ruled the Laukkai district and helped transform it into a hub for casinos, trafficking, scam compounds, and prostitution.

China’s Supreme People’s Court approved the executions after 21 members were charged with homicide, kidnapping, extortion, operating a fraudulent casino, organizing illegal border crossings, and forced prostitution.

The court said the Bai family made over $4 billion across its enterprise and killed six Chinese citizens.

Read more: China executes 11 ringleaders of pig butchering scam compound

Despite five facing the death penalty, only four were executed as Bai Suocheng, the family’s patriarch, died of illness after his conviction.

Bai once joined the Myanmar Armed Forces in a series of violent skirmishes in 2009 to overthrow Pheung Kya-shin, the former leader of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army

His family was one of four major families that controlled the Laukkai region until China intervened in 2023 by backing ethnic insurgents to retake control.

China executes 4 while Cambodia carries out raids

Just last week, 11 members of the less powerful Ming family were executed. The family’s patriarch, Ming Xuechang, was head of the local police force and a henchman to Bai Suocheng. He reportedly killed himself after warrants were issued for his arrest.

The Mai family oversaw the Crouching Tiger Villa, one of the larger scam compounds within the Laukkai region.

Another scam compound in the Cambodian city of Bavet was raided by authorities this weekend as part of a wider crackdown in the country. Over 2,000 foreign nationals were detained, of whom almost 1,800 were of Chinese descent.

Read more: Cambodian scam rings facing disruption since kingpin’s arrest

The raid saw 700 police officers target 22 buildings. Cambodia researcher Jacob Daniel claims this raid has led to other compounds clearing out their occupants.

For years now, Southeast Asia has been rife with human trafficking as criminal industries prey on displaced individuals and force them into slave labor.

Scam compounds in particular are filled with abducted victims who are tortured and forced to carry out cryptocurrency-based scams, such as pig-butchering, against online victims overseas.