Myanmar army raids KK Park scam hub, arrests over 2,000 people

Myanmar’s military says it has arrested more than 2,000 people in a sweeping raid on KK Park, a notorious cyber-scam complex on the Thai border long linked to international criminal syndicates.

According to state newspaper Myanmar Alin, the operation targeted more than 250 low-rise buildings in Myawaddy Township, including warehouses and shophouses allegedly used for illegal gambling, money laundering, and online romance and investment scams.

Troops also seized 30 Starlink satellite terminals, equipment built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX that allowed the compound to stay connected even during blackouts.

In total, 2,198 people were detained: 1,645 men, 445 women, and 98 private security guards. The report did not specify their nationalities.

Images released by the military showed soldiers posing beside rows of seized Starlink devices. KK Park, sitting just across the river from Thailand’s Mae Sot, has become infamous as a hub for Chinese-run criminal networks and human trafficking rings.

Military spokesperson Major-General Zaw Min Tun accused top figures from the Karen National Union (KNU), an ethnic armed group fighting the junta, of involvement in the operation’s management.

Myanmar has been under growing pressure from Thailand and China to shut down such scam compounds, which have become major sources of cross-border crime and human rights abuses.

The issue gained widespread attention in China earlier this year when actor Wang Xing was kidnapped and trafficked to a scam centre before being rescued by Thai police.

Rights groups say many workers in these centres are trafficking victims themselves, recruited under false promises of legitimate jobs and then forced to run online scams under threat of violence.

Thai officials estimate that up to 100,000 people are trapped in similar operations along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Scam compounds like KK Park have proliferated across Southeast Asia, especially in Myanmar and Cambodia, generating billions of dollars for transnational criminal groups. In September, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned over 20 entities and individuals linked to such networks.