(MENAFN- Asia Times)
BANGKOK – Human“pig butchering” scams have stolen billions of dollars from Americans rendering them financially devastated, heartbroken from fake love, and in worst cases suicidal, according to a new US Institute of Peace (USIP) report on Chinese-dominated transnational crime based in Southeast Asia.
In a terrible twist, many of the estimated 300,000 lying, sweet-talking scammers – overwhelmingly from developing countries – also suffer because they are allegedly imprisoned and brutalized by the Chinese-run gangs.
The armed gangs lure or kidnap them to Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos and“deploy torture to engage victims in forced criminality,” the USIP report said.
“At the moment, there is no record of any currently trapped Americans in these compounds but there have been a small number,” USIP visiting expert Jacob Sims said in an interview.
“A couple of years ago, an American was in a compound [in Cambodia] – and treated as a criminal once he got out, by the Cambodian government – and eventually found his way back to America.
“And there was another who was repatriated to Thailand and then back to America from a compound on the Thai-Myanmar border.
“That one was I think more recently, maybe three months ago, something like that,” Sims said.
“He was released during a mass release of many, like close to a thousand people, that were being held. Some of them ended up getting released and some of them ended up getting deported,” back home to China.
“He was quietly sort of brought back to Thailand and comes back to the US,” he said.
“It is actually highly probable that there are Americans or British people working willingly in these compounds, but the incentives don't work out to hold Americans [against their will] because the US government is then going to be more likely to take an aggressive response against the compounds,” Sims said.
“There are lots of law enforcement representatives from all over the world who have gone down to that area,” where compounds are clustered on the Myanmar side of the border with Thailand, said USIP Burma (Myanmar) country director Jason Tower in an interview.
“The 30-some-odd compounds which are there, are all trafficking people and keeping people enslaved,” Tower said.
Beijing is among the governments trying to crack down on the gangs that originated years ago when illegal online Chinese gambling sites discovered devious ways to move money via the internet.
MENAFN17072024000159011032ID1108450624
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.