Kings Romans Casino in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone along Mekong river in Laos
Fears are rising over Myanmar-based scam groups relocating to Laos due to crackdown in Myanmar, pushed by China, reports rfa.org. In recent months China has intensified a crackdown on online scams operated by criminal syndicates in forced labour camps in border areas of military-ruled Myanmar. “There have been growing concerns that many of these scam groups might opt to relocate their operations to Laos, especially to its Golden Triangle area,” a source who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told Radio Free Asia. South Korea therefore has decided to impose a travel ban for the Lao Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ) from Feb. 1.
In December, the Lao authorities deported 462 Chinese nationals for offenses including human trafficking from the Golden Triangle SEZ according to rfa.org. in mid-September 164 Chinese nationals, including 46 arrested in the Bokeo Special Economic Zone were sent back to China. The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was established in 2007 in the northern province of Bokeo on a 3,000-hectare concession along the Mekong River. it has also earned a reputation as a haven for criminal activities, including prostitution and drug trafficking, reports rfa.org. Impoverished young people from Laos and neighboring countries have told Radio Free Asia they were lured to the area with the promise of a lucrative job but were then held against their will in casinos by trafficking rings that exploit them under threat of violence.
Lao authorities currently do not have the right to enter special economic zones to conduct investigations, notes rfa.org.
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To the criminal networks, the casinos in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia are the new banks, allowing them to launder money on a vast scale away from scrutiny and with little likelihood of law enforcement catching up with them, according to a report released in January by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), writes South China Morning Post. The government of China has painted an alarming picture of a Mekong region studded with casinos that are a crucial cog in the money-laundering machines engineered by gangsters in Taiwan and Macau, including the infamous 14K Triad and Taiwan’s Heavenly Way Alliance.
Zhao Wei (赵伟) is the owner of the Dok Ngiew Kham Group and co-owner of Hong Kong SAR-listed Kings Romans International (HK) which operates the Kings Romans casino in Laos. He is also the chairman of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ). In the UNODC-report you can read: "Zhao Wei’s network of criminal connections in Asia has been solidified through his close association as a purported member of the 14K triad. In January 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Kings Romans and Zhao Wei, declaring his network a ‘transnational criminal organization’ and imposing sanctions on him and three associates as well as three of his companies based in Lao PDR, Thailand, and Hong Kong SAR. In addition to drug trafficking, the U.S. Treasury also alleges that Zhao’s network engages in human trafficking, wildlife trafficking, money laundering, and bribery, much of which is facilitated through Kings Romans." in December 2023, authorities in China and Lao PDR executed a joint operation targeting confirmed cyberfraud operations, raiding seven business offices and arresting 462 suspects in the Golden Triangle SEZ. Zhao Wei has denied the allegations that illegal activities took place in the zone.
But by a visit in 2023 the International Crisis Group identified four guarded high-rise buildings with barred windows and high fences wrapped in razor wire. "Locals told Crisis Group that people were locked inside and forced to work as online scammers", you can read in "Stepping into South East Asia’s Most Conspicuous Criminal Enclave".
Zhao Wei (red dress) in a picture from November 2019
According to Prof. Dr. Pinkaew Laungaramsri from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Chiang Mai University Zhao Wei has also invested in KK Park in Myanmar, a hub for scam operations and other crimes near the border of Mae Sot district in Thailand. She told https://transbordernews.in.th/: “One of the KK buildings, the KK4, as far as we know, has been made possible by the joint-investment with Kings Romans. Basically, Zhao Wei has purchased and invested in the project. Why did he buy the building? Obviously, because it is a hub of all the call-center gangsters and the connection is there.” The Professor said also: "At present, people lured to work with the call-center gangsters have been sold off to the Golden Triangle gangs and ended up in the area opposite to Mae Sot District. They are initially shipped through a boat ride to Tachileik and then transported on to Mae Sot District."
Read also:
Macao on the Mekong: How Chinese money flows into the Golden Triangle (31.1.2018)
Report "Casinos, Money Laundering, Underground Banking, and Transnational Organized Crime in East and Southeast Asia: A Hidden and Accelerating Threat" by UNODC
Transnational Crime and Geopolitical Contestation along the Mekong. Report by International Crisis Group.
