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One Chinese court has sentenced five leading individuals of a well-known Myanmar mafia to capital punishment as Chinese authorities persists in its campaign on fraudulent networks in the region.

Altogether, 21 Bai family individuals and collaborators were convicted of scams, murder, assault and additional offenses, said a state media announcement released on the judicial portal.

The family is one of a few of organized crime groups that became dominant in the last two decades and changed the impoverished isolated region of the town into a lucrative base of casinos and red-light districts.

Recently they pivoted to scams in which thousands of illegally moved workers, many of them from China, are caught, harmed and obligated to defraud targets in unlawful operations valued at billions of dollars.

Information of the Judgment

Syndicate head Bai Suocheng and his son the younger Bai were included in the five figures given to death by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. Another individual, A third figure and A fourth person were the other three punished.

A couple of members of the clan syndicate were given delayed executions. Five were condemned to permanent incarceration, while nine others were given jail sentences between three to 20 years.

This family, who commanded their own private army, established 41 compounds to accommodate their digital scam operations and gambling houses, officials said.

Scale of Unlawful Operations

These illegal activities entailed over twenty-nine billion yuan ($4.1 billion; £3.1 billion). They also resulted in the fatalities of six Chinese citizens, the suicide of an individual and multiple harm, reports announced.

The severe punishments delivered by the court are part of China's initiative to remove the large fraud operations in the region - and send a stern signal to other unlawful organizations.

Context of the Groups

These clans rose to power in the early 2000s with the help of Min Aung Hlaing - who currently heads Myanmar's junta. He had wanted to prop up allies in the town after replacing its previous ruler.

Within the clans, the Bais were "the most powerful", Bai Yingcang previously told state media.

During that period, our Bai family was the dominant in both the political and armed circles," the individual stated in a film about the clan, aired on official channels in the summer.

During the report, a individual at one of their scam centres recalled the mistreatment he had suffered there: in addition to being beaten, he had his fingernails yanked out with instruments and a couple of his digits amputated with a tool.

Further Charges

Bai Yingcang is among those who were condemned to death in the latest ruling. He has also been independently found guilty of planning to trade and manufacture 11 tonnes of methamphetamine, official sources stated.

End of the Groups

The families' fall came in recent times as situations shifted.

Previously Beijing has pressed the Myanmar junta to control fraudulent schemes in the area.

In 2023, the authorities released legal actions for the most prominent individuals of these clans.

Bai Suocheng, the clan's leader, was included in the warlords who were transferred to Beijing from Myanmar in the beginning of the year.

"Why is the state making so much effort to go after the clans?" a Chinese investigator commented in the summer documentary.

"It's to warn groups, no matter who you are, where you are, when you carry out such terrible acts targeting the Chinese people, you will pay the price."