China Sentences 11 Members of Mafia Family to Death
According to Chinese state media reports dated September 29, 2025, a court in China sentenced 11 members of the notorious Ming mafia family to death. These individuals were part of a larger criminal syndicate operating mostly in Laukkai, a town near the China-Myanmar border, which had become a hub for illegal gambling, drug trafficking, telecommunications fraud, and human trafficking.
The Ming family was one of four powerful clans that transformed Laukkai into a lawless center for crime and scam operations. Their criminal enterprises generated over 10 billion yuan (approximately $1.4 billion) from illegal casinos, drugs, and fraud that targeted victims worldwide. The operation also involved violent tactics, including the killing of several workers to prevent escape and silence dissent.
In total, 39 members of the Ming family were sentenced in Wenzhou, a city in eastern China. Besides the 11 death penalties, five others received death sentences with reprieve, eleven got life imprisonment, and the remaining were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 5 to 24 years.
This crackdown follows a Myanmar government operation in 2023 to detain many involved in the mafia clans and hand them over to Chinese authorities. The ruling aims to curb cross-border crime and combat the “scamdemic,” where scam centers imprison and force thousands of victims to work in fraud schemes.
China’s firm stance on these criminal networks signals intensified efforts to dismantle organized crime linked to border regions, with pressure also extended to neighboring countries to act against similar mafia operations.
