Myanmar’s military authorities have intensified their campaign against sprawling cyber-fraud networks operating along the country’s porous frontier with Thailand. The most recent crackdown came on November 19, when junta forces raided a scam compound in the Shwe Kokko area-one of the most notorious hubs for online fraud and human trafficking in Southeast Asia-and detained 346 foreign nationals, according to the Ministry of Information. The detainees were reportedly seized alongside nearly 10,000 mobile phones believed to have been used for online gambling and so-called “pig-butchering” cyber-scams, which often involve romance schemes, investment fraud, and forced labor.

Authorities say every person detained during the raid was a foreign national, reflecting how deeply transnational these criminal syndicates have become. Shwe Kokko and neighboring compounds have long served as magnets for traffickers moving victims across borders-usually through Thailand-into Myanmar’s lawless enclaves, where they are coerced into working in prison-like cyber scam factories. Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun stated that approximately 99.5% of foreign nationals involved in these schemes entered through Thailand, underscoring the cross-border nature of the problem and the failure of regional safeguards.

The militarized areas along the Myanmar–Thailand border have, over the past decade, evolved into some of the world’s largest hubs for cyber fraud, illegal gambling, and human trafficking. Leveraging weak governance, corruption, ethnic armed conflicts, and unmonitored special economic zones, criminal groups-many backed by, or working alongside, local militias-have created a parallel economy built on exploiting trafficked workers and defrauding victims across Asia,........

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