Thailand’s resolve to crack down on human traffickers and scam compounds operating along its borders in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos is meeting stiff resistance from criminal syndicates who have dug in and are harder to catch than well-bred sewer rats.

The focus remains firmly on Myanmar, where Thailand has cut electricity, and blocked oil supplies and Internet connections. But syndicates have countered, buying up alternative electricity from Laos and generators and oil supplies in Thailand that they have smuggled back across the border.

Still, the crackdown has resulted in the rescue of about 7,000 people with the promise of more to come, but that number compares with hundreds of thousands of people believed to have been trafficked in Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations, and forced to work fraudulent online scams under extreme duress.

“China wants all scammers without a Myanmar visa released,” said one........

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