{"id":20529,"date":"2025-12-27T14:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T13:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=20529"},"modified":"2026-03-10T21:12:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:12:51","slug":"scams-drugs-and-gambling-inside-the-sin-city-built-by-a-notorious-chinese-gangster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/12\/scams-drugs-and-gambling-inside-the-sin-city-built-by-a-notorious-chinese-gangster\/","title":{"rendered":"Scams, drugs and gambling: Inside the \u2018Sin City\u2019 built by a notorious Chinese gangster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by\u00a0drug-watch-international@googlegroups.com <\/a>On Behalf Of Maggie Petito (of DWI) – <\/strong>Subject:<\/strong> TelegraphArticle12-22-25<\/p>\n

Opening comments by Maggie Petito of DWI: the following is a report from The Telegraph, UK on transnational multi-purpose\/multi-crime rackets\/cartels. The report confirms much reliance on bitcoin\/crypto to avoid detection. An FBI agent in Baltimore over a year ago told me that several of these Chinese-backed crime centers have located in rural India and now several in Pakistan and across Africa with a few in Mexico. I have no additional facts. -Maggie Petito<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And a correspondent of Maggie added this comment: Subject:<\/strong> Re: TheAtlanticArticle12-20-25 – Maggie,\u00a0You are correct in stating that there are Americans cooperating with the Chinese. \u00a0I found several real estate transactions between Americans and Chinese in rural Colorado that are very suspect and could even represent a form of money laundering. \u00a0\u00a0The big problem is that these shady transactions are being overlooked or just outright ignored.\u00a0Best,\u00a0Jay<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

TELEGRAPH ARTICLE –\u00a0 by\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Sarah Newey<\/span> <\/strong>– <\/em>12.22.2025 :<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u2018special economic zone\u2019 on the banks of the Mekong river has become famed for boundless criminality. Has its luck run out?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Newey reports \u201c The Telegraph has travelled to `Sin City\u2019, a lawless zone in the Golden Triangle, where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet. Set up almost 20 years ago by Zhao Wei, a Chinese gambling magnate, the `special economic zone\u2019 on the banks of the Mekong river has become famed for boundless criminality. The Zhao Wei Transnational Criminal Organisation (TCO) \u2013 as the operation is known to the US authorities \u2013 is allegedly involved in the illicit drug trade, human trafficking, bribery, wildlife trafficking and other forms of organised crime\u2026 In 2018, the US Treasury placed sanctions on it for alleged involvement in laundering money and assisting in the storage and distribution of heroin, methamphetamine, and other narcotics. Then in 2023, the UK followed up with sanctions on Zhao and his wife, Su, for their links to human trafficking and forced criminality.<\/span><\/p>\n

`Wei is the owner and president of Kings Romans Group which controls the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone,\u2019\u00a0reads the UK deposition. `Therefore, he bears responsibility for, supported and obtained benefit from the trafficking of individuals to the Zone, where they were forced to work as scammers targeting English-speaking individuals and subject to physical abuse and further cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

`Chatting companies\u2019 is the euphemism locals use for the brutal scam centres described in the UK sanctions deposition quoted above.<\/span><\/p>\n

Poor locals and migrant workers from across the developing world are\u00a0trafficked or tricked\u00a0into joining the `chatting companies\u2019, which swindle billions from unsuspecting individuals and businesses across the globe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schemes \u2013 often aided with AI \u2013\u00a0include romance scams, cryptocurrency cons, impersonation schemes, long haul fraud and cyber crime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even as recently as August 2024, Sin City was booming. A census put the overall population at around 120,000 people, while karaoke bars, casinos and hotels were full and construction of new buildings continued apace.<\/span><\/p>\n

At its height, it is estimated that roughly 300,000 people \u2013\u00a0many of them victims of human trafficking\u00a0\u2013 were working in scam centres across the wider Golden Triangle region, including some 85,000 in Sin City and Laos.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aided by armed groups and corrupt officials, the criminal syndicates operating these centres have made billions. In\u00a0Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos\u00a0combined, at least $43.8 billion (\u00a333.8bn) is being stolen yearly, according to a report from the US Institute of Peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is little doubt that on his way up Zhao Wei benefited from support from Beijing and close ties to the Laos government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only last year he was awarded a state medal for \u201ccontributions to policing\u201d by the authorities in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, while local media have reported on friendships with the political elite. The Laotian authorities did not respond to Telegraph requests for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

`The evidence is just overwhelming that these are state-sponsored criminal industries,\u2019 said Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University\u2019s Asia Centre and expert on cybercrime in the Mekong. `The level of collaboration is historically unprecedented, in terms of the scale and the volume of money passing through these industries\u2026\u2019 `While we\u2019re seeing less of the \u2018dungeon\u2019 set up with overt trafficking and torture, this is still a very abusive system\u2026 You don\u2019t have a strong hand when a crime syndicate has taken your passport.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also little sign of a real plan to systematically dismantle Sin City or Zhao Wei\u2019s Kings Romans Group.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Inside ‘Sin city’<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The gamblers at the baccarat table have lost all track of time. Outside, night has given way to day, but inside the game of chance rolls on.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a gaudy scene. The players \u2013 mostly Chinese and Thais, with a handful of Russians \u2013 smoke continuously, their bleary eyes fixed on the hands of an immaculately dressed croupier as she deals yet another round of cards. They all hoard chips denominated in Chinese Yuan, though the biggest pile now sits with the House.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we look on, an unsmiling security guard eyes the Telegraph suspiciously. \u201cThere are no Western games here,\u201d he says cryptically, pausing next to us on his patrol of the lush casino floor. The hint taken, we nod politely and get up to go.<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside, a stretch Hummer and three Polaris Slingshots are parked by a side entrance, while a pair of gleaming Rolls Royce take pride of place in the forecourt. Across a waterway is a vast Venetian-style plaza, which looks like an abandoned set from a Hollywood fairytale.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Telegraph has travelled to \u201cSin City\u201d, a lawless zone in the Golden Triangle, where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet. Set up almost 20 years ago by Zhao Wei, a Chinese gambling magnate, the \u201cspecial economic zone\u201d on the banks of the Mekong river has become famed for boundless criminality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Zhao Wei Transnational Criminal Organisation (TCO) \u2013 as the operation is known to the US authorities \u2013 is allegedly involved in the illicit drug trade, human trafficking, bribery, wildlife trafficking and other forms of organised crime.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, the US Treasury\u00a0placed sanctions on it\u00a0for alleged involvement in laundering money and assisting in the storage and distribution of heroin, methamphetamine, and other narcotics. Then in 2023, the UK followed up with sanctions on Zhao and his wife, Su, for their links to human trafficking and forced criminality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWei is the owner and president of Kings Romans Group which controls the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone,\u201d\u00a0reads the UK deposition. \u201cTherefore, he bears responsibility for, supported and obtained benefit from the trafficking of individuals to the Zone, where they were forced to work as scammers targeting English-speaking individuals and subject to physical abuse and further cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of this illicit activity is said to be conducted through the Kings Romans gambling group \u2013 the flagship casino of which we have just departe \u2018The chatting companies have left\u2019: If you are thinking Sin City sounds like a real-life Bond villain\u2019s hideout you would not be wrong. Yet its golden facade now seems to be fracturing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Less than a year ago, the streets, bars and brothels of this enclave were a hive of activity. But today the 10,000 hectare stretch of land, in which Zhoa is estimated to have invested $3.5bn since acquiring it in 2007, is all but a ghost town, its illicit industries relocating to new ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Telegraph visited ahead of Christmas, the streets were eerily quiet and new high rise buildings stood empty, their development stalled. At night, the faux-Venetian playground was cloaked in darkness, while the turreted casino \u2013 usually illuminated \u2013 had only a few lights on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey do not turn on those lights,\u201d said a receptionist at Kings Romans casino and hotel, where we were able to book rooms at a discounted rate. \u201cIt\u2019s to save the cost, the economy is not so good. It\u2019s been bad for two months.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Later that night at a strip of bars where images of scantily clad women are plastered across nightclub walls, locals told the same story.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is almost no one here because the situation is not good,\u201d said one woman in her 20s, gesturing with long, claw-like nails. \u201cI don\u2019t know much about it, but I saw the police coming in and checking [buildings]. It was not so long ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A barman adds: \u201cIt\u2019s quiet because the chatting companies have left.\u201d \u201cChatting companies\u201d is the euphemism locals use for the brutal scam centres described in the UK sanctions deposition quoted above.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the pandemic, the enclave has become the global epicentre for this new type of industrialised telephone and internet fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n

Poor locals and migrant workers from across the developing world are\u00a0trafficked or tricked\u00a0into joining the \u201cchatting companies\u201d, which swindle billions from unsuspecting individuals and businesses across the globe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schemes \u2013 often aided with AI \u2013\u00a0include romance scams, cryptocurrency cons, impersonation schemes, long haul fraud and cyber crime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even as recently as August 2024, Sin City was booming. A census put the overall population at around 120,000 people, while karaoke bars, casinos and hotels were full and construction of new buildings continued apace.<\/span><\/p>\n

At its height, it is estimated that roughly 300,000 people \u2013\u00a0many of them victims of human trafficking\u00a0\u2013 were working in scam centres across the wider Golden Triangle region, including some 85,000 in Sin City and Laos.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aided by armed groups and corrupt officials, the criminal syndicates operating these centres have made billions. In\u00a0Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos\u00a0combined, at least $43.8 billion (\u00a333.8bn) is being stolen yearly, according to a report from the US Institute of Peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scam centres in Sin City and Laos alone were estimated to be generating $10.9bn (\u00a38.76bn) in illicit revenue annually, it said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But now things are changing. The criminal boom in Sin City has turned to bust as global regulatory authorities, including the Chinese have moved in.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018State-sponsored criminal industries\u2019: There is little doubt that on his way up Zhao Wei benefited from support from Beijing and close ties to the Laos government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only last year he was awarded a state medal for \u201ccontributions to policing\u201d by the authorities in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, while local media have reported on friendships with the political elite. The Laotian authorities did not respond to Telegraph requests for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence is just overwhelming that these are state-sponsored criminal industries,\u201d said Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University\u2019s Asia Centre and expert on cybercrime in the Mekong. \u201cThe level of collaboration is historically unprecedented, in terms of the scale and the volume of money passing through these industries.\u201d But across the Mekong, efforts to crack down on the scam centres have been ramping up \u2013 with police raids, sanctions and even military action.<\/span><\/p>\n

The junta in Myanmar, under pressure from China, recently bombed and demolished buildings used for fraud in two notorious scam centres called KK Park and Shwe Kokko, for instance.<\/span><\/p>\n

International pressure is driving the change. Across Europe, America, the Middle East and even China itself too many citizens have been either defrauded or trafficked for the problem to be ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n

In October, the US and UK sanctioned 146 entities and individuals connected to the Prince Group, another \u201csprawling cyberfraud empire\u201d, this one based in Cambodia. Its chairman, Chen Zhi, was among those targeted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe leader of the network, Chen Zhi, and his web of enablers have incorporated their businesses in the British Virgin Islands and invested in the London property market, including a \u00a312 million mansion on Avenue Road in North London, a \u00a3100 million office building on Fenchurch Street in the City of London, and seventeen flats on New Oxford Street and in Nine Elms in South London\u201d, said the Home Office. \u201cThe sanctions will freeze these businesses and properties with immediate effect, locking Chen and his network out of the UK\u2019s financial system\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper added: \u201cThe masterminds behind these horrific scam centres are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying up London homes to store their money.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTogether with our US allies, we are taking decisive action to combat the growing transnational threat posed by this network \u2013 upholding human rights, protecting British nationals and keeping dirty money off our streets\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Sims of Harvard said the action being taken by the US and others was changing the calculus of the fraudsters. \u201cInstead of just raiding and performatively arresting low level perpetrators, you\u2019re actually going after the kingpins,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Horsey, a senior Myanmar analyst at Crisis Group, agreed. Noting the action of the Myanmar government, he said: \u201cClaims of destruction have run ahead of the dynamite, but there\u2019s a definite intent by the regime to demonstrate \u2013 to China, to the US, to the Thais and to everyone else \u2013 that they\u2019re trying to do something serious about this problem. Even though the military are themselves complicit in some of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe same thing has happened in Laos \u2013 there was a crackdown because the scam centre became too high profile.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Things may not be going well for Zhao\u2019s criminal network\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As China has boomed, it has exported criminality to many areas, like most expansionist powers. Gambling and prostitution in particular have proliferated across the Pacific and large parts of Asia and Africa as Chinese businesses and entrepreneurs have set up there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such criminality is not typically sanctioned by Beijing but nor is it actively moved against until it becomes a diplomatic impediment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, it seems, Zhao and the Kings Romans Group have crossed this line. Last August, just eight months after the first round of UK sanctions targeting Sin City\u2019s scam centres, he appeared at a ceremony with a local governor and ordered all illegal online activity in the Special Economic Zone to be dismantled within a fortnight.<\/span><\/p>\n

By December this year, some 900 people working in the scam centres had been arrested and repatriated by Laos authorities, according to the\u00a0Mekong Risk Monitor published last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThings may not be going well for Zhao\u2019s criminal network,\u201d according to Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and co-author of the Mekong Risk Monitor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Zhao at a rare public appearance in 2024\u00a0Credit: SOPA Images<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Not only have Zhao and his family been largely absent from public appearances, but the entire executive leadership of the Special Economic Zone have left their jobs. Census data suggests the city\u2019s population has halved, to 65,300 people, while there was another crackdown targeting scam compounds there between the 2 and 18 November.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt present, the strategy of the Kings Romans Group seems to be to work with authorities in a \u2018campaign style\u2019 to advance what are portrayed as crackdowns,\u201d wrote Mr Towers. \u201cThis means that scam syndicates need to hand over several hundred individuals per crackdown and spend significant amounts of time operating outside of the zone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe police raided there,\u201d confirmed a rickshaw driver in Sin City, pointing at a padlocked brown high rise as we cruised through the outskirts of town. \u201cA lot of African and South Asian people recruited to run cyber scams used to live here, but it\u2019s all shut now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018This is still a very abusive system\u2019: So what now for Sin City and the scam centres across the Mekong?<\/span><\/p>\n

Most experts are not optimistic and say the current enforcement actions are unlikely to lead to lasting change. For the most part they are just displacing the problem, they say.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a metamorphisation of the scam centres,\u201d said Mr Horsey of the Crisis Group. \u201cThey\u2019re constantly evolving across the region \u2026 after a crackdown, we see them dislodged to other areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, there\u2019s a sense that the big hotspots are expensive to build but too easy to shut down if there\u2019s a will. So a tonne of the operators, especially smaller ones, are spreading to office buildings or guest houses in new areas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One such area is Vientiane, some 400 miles downstream from the Golden Triangle. Here taxi drivers told the Telegraph that the last six months had seen a surge in people from South Asia and Africa who said they were in Laos to work rather than travel. The city\u2019s casinos are also booming. \u201cThe general trend is that scam centres are now trying to blend in and not be obvious,\u201d said Mr Horsey. \u201cThere\u2019s always been a range, from really sordid operators who treat their staff as prisoners, to those who let them do whatever they want when not on shift.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019re seeing less of the \u2018dungeon\u2019 set up with overt trafficking and torture, this is still a very abusive system\u2026 You don\u2019t have a strong hand when a crime syndicate has taken your passport.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also little sign of a real plan to systematically dismantle Sin City or Zhao Wei\u2019s Kings Romans Group.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary issue is that Laos and Chinese authorities continue to rely on the Kings Romans Group as a partner to address problems,\u201d Mr Tower wrote in the Mekong Risk Monitor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within Sin City, locals hope things will bounce back. They believe they just have to ride out a tough few months \u2013 and whispers are circulating of a plan to both reverse the exodus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI heard at the end of the year, there will be another investment project \u2026 they say they will bring something big,\u201d said a restaurant owner. \u201cThe business will be back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s true that in Telegram channels seen by the Telegraph, there are a near-constant stream of posts advertising jobs as models, developers, receptionists and \u201cchat support specialists\u201d in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. Some mention \u201cchatting platforms\u201d or \u201ccall centres\u201d obliquely \u2013 others more explicitly reference \u201cscms\u201d. But for now at least, Sin City is down, if not out.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its intricately decorated version of \u201cChinatown\u201d, a distressed monkey paces a small, rusting cage while a Porsche without number plates has stopped outside a gold shop.<\/span><\/p>\n

We take a seat at a hotpot restaurant for a bite to eat before heading back across the Mekong to Thailand. After taking our food order, the owner offers to procure \u201cgirls\u201d should we want them later that night. Prices start at 800 yuan (\u00a385) for a Laotian woman for two hours, rising to 1,400 if we prefer someone Vietnamese. We make our excuses and leave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0www.drugwatch.org \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> drug-watch-international@googlegroups.com<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by\u00a0drug-watch-international@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of Maggie Petito (of DWI) – Subject: TelegraphArticle12-22-25 Opening comments by Maggie Petito of DWI: the following is a report from The Telegraph, UK on transnational multi-purpose\/multi-crime rackets\/cartels. The report confirms much reliance on bitcoin\/crypto to avoid detection. An FBI agent in Baltimore over a year ago told me that several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,129,133,147,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-violence-prison","category-culture","category-gambling","category-trafficking","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20529"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20566,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20529\/revisions\/20566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}