Myanmar’s military government says it has raided a major online scam compound in Shwe Kokko near the Thai border, detained 346 foreigners and seized nearly 10,000 mobile phones in what it described as a new stage in its crackdown on cyberfraud.
According to the evidence packet, the raid took place on Tuesday and was described by military spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun in state media on Wednesday. The operation targeted a scam compound in the town of Shwe Kokko, in Myawaddy district, an area known for cross-border criminal activity and weak central control.
The military says it has been pursuing scam operations and illegal gambling since early September. This latest raid followed an earlier major operation at KK Park in mid-October, after which more than 1,500 people from about two dozen countries crossed into Thailand.
The evidence packet says authorities blocked people trying to flee across the border and confiscated nearly 10,000 mobile phones along with other related equipment. That scale suggests a large, industrial-style fraud operation rather than a small criminal cell.
The alleged scam centers are part of a regional problem that the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says generates nearly $40 billion in annual profits from Southeast Asia-based operations. The Myanmar case is especially sensitive because these compounds are often entangled with armed groups and local power brokers.
The packet notes that the area is only loosely controlled by the military government and is also influenced by ethnic minority militias. It says the military-backed Border Guard Force and the Karen National Union both deny involvement in the scams, even though the government has accused the KNU of links through real-estate deals.
That makes the crackdown politically complicated. Critics on social media and elsewhere have questioned whether the operations are genuine, while the military insists it is trying to eradicate the fraud ‘from their roots.’ The evidence packet makes clear that the authorities are also emphasizing cooperation with China, the junta’s top ally.
The reporting does not independently verify every accusation made by the military, but it does confirm that Shwe Kokko was the site of a large raid, with hundreds detained and a large cache of devices seized. That alone shows the scale of the scam economy operating along the Myanmar-Thailand border.
For now, the military’s message is that the crackdown is expanding. For the region, the question is whether these raids dismantle the networks behind the scams or simply push them elsewhere.
