🔗 Share this article

One Chinese court has sentenced a group of prominent members of an infamous Myanmar mafia to capital punishment as Chinese authorities maintains its campaign on fraudulent networks in Southeast Asian region.

In all, 21 clan figures and partners were convicted of fraud, homicide, injury and various crimes, reported a state media document posted on the judicial portal.

The family is one of a handful of mafias that rose to power in the last two decades and transformed the impoverished remote area of the town into a lucrative base of gambling establishments and nightlife areas.

In recent years they turned to scams in which many of trafficked people, many of them Chinese, are caught, abused and forced to cheat targets in unlawful activities worth huge sums.

Information of the Judgment

Mafia boss the patriarch and his son the younger Bai were included in the several individuals condemned to capital punishment by the court in Shenzhen. Another individual, Hu Xiaojiang and Chen Guangyi were the other three sentenced.

Two individuals of the clan syndicate were handed suspended death sentences. Several were sentenced to permanent incarceration, while more figures were received prison terms ranging from a period of 3-20 years.

This family, who commanded their own armed group, set up forty-one bases to accommodate their cyberscam activities and betting establishments, government reported.

Scale of Unlawful Activities

These criminal operations included more than 29bn yuan ($4.1bn; £3.1 billion). They also caused the deaths of six from China nationals, the self-inflicted death of an individual and numerous injuries, state media stated.

The strict penalties handed down by the judicial body are within China's effort to eradicate the vast fraud networks in the region - and issue a firm message to additional unlawful organizations.

Context of the Clans

Such clans became dominant in the recent decades with the assistance of a military leader - who is in charge of Myanmar's regime. The leader had aimed to support partners in the town after replacing its former leader.

Among the families, the this family were "absolutely number one", Bai Yingcang earlier stated to state media.

Back then, our Bai family was the most powerful in both the government and armed circles," he stated in a film about the clan, aired on Chinese state media in the summer.

In the same documentary, a employee at one of their scam centres described the harm he had suffered at the location: in addition to being beaten, he had his fingernails removed with tools and two of his digits amputated with a tool.

Further Accusations

Bai Yingcang is included in those who were sentenced to death in the latest ruling. He has also been independently sentenced of planning to smuggle and make 11 tonnes of narcotics, reports stated.

Downfall of the Families

Their end occurred in last year as circumstances shifted.

Over a long period Beijing has urged the local government to control fraudulent schemes in the area.

Last year, the authorities announced arrest warrants for the most prominent figures of these families.

Bai Suocheng, the Bai family's leader, was among the warlords who were extradited to Beijing from Myanmar in the beginning of the year.

For what reason is the state making such extensive work to go after the clans?" a Chinese investigator stated in the summer film.

"It's to warn individuals, no matter your position, your location, when you engage in such serious acts affecting the nationals, you will be held accountable."