A Chinese court condemned to death eleven members of an infamous mafia family that had created improvised casino in Myanmaraccording to the Chinese state media.

Dozens of family members Ming They were found guilty of criminal activities, with many still being punished by years of prison sentences.

The Ming family worked for one of the four factions that controlled its isolated city of Laucai Myanmarnear the border with China, and they turned it into a gambling center, drug and fraud. Eventually, Myanmar was suppressed, arresting many members of these families in 2023 and delivering them to the Chinese authorities.

According to a CCTV state television report, a total of 39 members of the Ming family were sentenced Monday to the eastern city of Untzu.

In addition to the eleven members who were sentenced to death, another five were sentenced to death by two years suspended, eleven were sentenced to life in prison and the others received prison sentences from five to 24 years.

The court ruled that since 2015 the Ming family and other criminal groups have been involved in illegal activities such as telecommunications fraud, illegal casinos, drug trafficking and prostitution.

Their gambling and fraud activities brought more than 10 billion yuan ($ 1.4 billion; £ 1 billion), according to the court.

Previous estimates reported that casinos of each of the four families were trafficked several billions of dollars a year.

The court also found that the Ming family and other criminal groups were responsible for the deaths of several casino workers, including an incident where workers were shot to prevent them from returning to China.

Initially, Laukai casinos were developed to exploit the demand of Chinese gambling, which is illegal in China and in many neighboring countries. But then, they turned into a lucrative showcase for money laundering, trafficking and dozens of fraud centers.

The city was considered the “machine” of what the UN called “Scamdemic”, a phenomenon in which more than 100,000 foreign nationals, many of whom Chinese, were dragged into fraud centers where they were virtually imprisoned and forced to work endless hours.

The Ming family was once one of the strongest in the state like Myanmar and managed Laukai fraud centers that employed at least 10,000 workers. The most notorious was a band known as the “villa of the hidden tiger”, where the workers were beaten and tortured systematically.

Two years ago, an alliance of guerrilla groups launched an attack that expelled Myanmar’s army from large areas of the state like and occupied Laukai. China, which has a significant influence on these groups, was thought to have given the green light.

The patriarch of the family, Ming Suecheng, allegedly committed suicide; other members of the family surrendered to the Chinese authorities. Some have made statements of remorse.

Thousands of workers in the fraud centers also surrendered to Chinese police.

With these convictions, China shows its determination to deal with the fraud on its border. Beijing’s pressure also forced Thailand to take steps earlier this year against the fraud centers at its border with Myanmar.

Nevertheless, the activity has been adapted, with much of it now operating in Cambodia, though it remains intense in Myanmar.