Mafia take hit in Myanmar - update II

Bai Suocheng, Wei Chaoren and Liu Zhengxiang led three of four families which ruled Laukkaing on Myanmar's north-eastern border with China with an iron fist. The four families took over control of Laukkaing in 2009. Liu Guoxi, who led the fourth family, died in 2020. They were taken to China on a chartered flight with 7 other gangsters. It is another sign of the pending downfall of Myanmar's military regime.

An alliance of three regional ethnic minority groups has taken over key towns close to the Chinese border since fighting broke out in late October. The rebels said their goal is to end the “oppressive military dictatorship” in Myanmar. In Laukkaing, they have freed workers from scam call centers and seized members of ruling families who are sometimes handed over to Chinese authorities. The mafia families have enjoyed near complete autonomy in the region in return for their support of Myanmar’s military junta. But now they find themselves on the wrong side. Rebels raided the notorious Crouching Tiger Villa.

3 years after a military coup ousted Myanmar’s democratic government, it’s ethnic rebels who are the biggest threat to the ruling junta. They’ve notched battlefield victories that experts say have pushed the junta into its limit. The country’s oldest and most powerful ethnic armed group is Karen National Union, or KNU. They have growing numbers of troops, guns and grenades. They control territory, collect taxes, and run schools and hospitals. “We are doing this revolution to get peace,” said P’doh Saw Thaw Thi Bwe. “But not just for our territory. For everyone.”

Photos by Chinese cops showed them with a couple in front of a border gate. They are Ming Guoping and Ming Zhenzhen, son and granddaughter of one of the warlords in the area, who has run the town of Laukkaing for 14 years. Myanmar military published a photo of an autopsy being conducted in the back of a van on the body of a man. It was the warlord himself - Ming Xuechang who 'killed himself' after being arrested.

Ming Xuechang was a key henchman of Bai Suocheng, who heads one of the '4 families'. The other three families are headed by Wei Chaoren, Liu Guoxi and Liu Zhengxiang. All are local Kokang people. Developed to take advantage of Chinese demand for gambling, which is illegal in China, casinos evolved into lucrative fronts for money laundering, trafficking and in particular as a home for dozens of scam centres that fleeced Chinese and others daily. Ming Xuechang ran one of the most notorious of these scam centers, called Crouching Tiger Villa. Reports are vague but there was a 'bloodbath' there. Ming Xuechang also ran local police. Under their rule, the remote impoverished backwater of Laukkaing was transformed into a gaudy tourist casino hub of high-rise towers, bars, and red-light districts.

Bai Yincang, son of Bai Suocheng.