Chinese government's death penalty for 11 members of the Ming family who operated a gambling and prostitution city

China has executed eleven members of the Ming family, a powerful organized crime group that operated fraudulent centers in Myanmar. According to Chinese state media, this group was involved in numerous illegal trafficking activities operating along Myanmar's borders.

The Ming family was prominent among several powerful families that controlled Laukkaing, a city in Myanmar located near the Chinese border. Under their rule, this extremely difficult region was transformed into an entertainment hub filled with casinos and brothels. Some referred to it as Myanmar's 'Las Vegas'. However, their criminal empire collapsed in 2023 when ethnic armed groups, who seized power in the city during Myanmar's ongoing civil war, arrested these individuals and handed them over to China.

These trafficking operations, which ran for years, trapped thousands of Chinese workers, and hundreds of thousands of people from foreign countries were forcibly transported to these camps to be defrauded of money. Last year, news of a Chinese actor being abducted to a fraudulent center in Myanmar while on a performing trip to Thailand sparked widespread discussion on social media. Such incidents led Beijing to exert strong pressure on Myanmar's military government to crack down on this criminal network.

According to the Chinese Supreme People's Court, from 2015 to 2023, they earned over 10 billion yuan (approximately 1.4 billion USD) through these fraudulent businesses and gambling centers. The court further stated that 14 Chinese citizens died and a large number of others were injured due to their criminal activities, and accordingly, their appeals were rejected, and the sentence was upheld.