China has executed four people for causing the deaths of six people and running Myanmar-based scam and gambling operations worth more than $4bn, authorities said.
In November, five people, including members of the notorious Bai family, were sentenced to death for running a network of scam centres and casinos.
The group’s leader, Bai Suocheng, died from an illness after he was convicted. The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court announced the executions of the other four defendants on Monday morning.
They were accused of establishing industrial parks running gambling and telecom scam operations involving kidnappings, extortion, forced prostitution and drug manufacturing and trafficking in Myanmar‘s Kokang region bordering China.
The group defrauded victims of more than 29bn yuan (£3.04bn) and caused the deaths of six Chinese citizens and injuries to others, according to a court statement, which labelled the group’s crimes “exceptionally heinous”.
The group had initially appealed the verdict, but the Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court dismissed the appeals.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The announcement comes less than a week after the country executed 11 members of the Ming family for killing 14 people and running a crime syndicate worth more than £730m out of Myanmar.
Scam parks have grown to an industrial-scale business in Southeast Asia, especially in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
Read more from Sky News:
Russian drone strike on bus in Ukraine kills 12
Trump ‘hopeful’ of Iran deal after regional conflict warning
Authorities in the region face growing international pressure from China, the US and other nations to address the proliferation of criminal activity.
In recent years, China executed more people than any other country – sometimes more than every other country in the world combined.
