Myanmar’s military says it has raided KK Park, a well-known online scam compound near the Thai border, detaining more than 2,000 people and seizing satellite internet equipment, state media reported. The Myanma Alinn newspaper said the operation, part of wider efforts begun in early September to curb online fraud, illegal gambling and cross-border cybercrime, uncovered more than 260 unregistered buildings and led to the seizure of about 30 Starlink terminals. The report included photos of seized equipment and soldiers, though the images were not independently dated.
The military gave a detention figure of 2,198 people but did not specify their nationalities. KK Park sits on the outskirts of Myawaddy in Kayin state, a trading town on the Myanmar–Thailand border that is only loosely controlled by the central military government and where ethnic armed groups also exert influence.
Myanmar has become a hub for large-scale fraud operations that target victims worldwide. Scammers typically groom people online through romance scams or lure them with fake investment schemes; many investigations and survivor accounts describe victims being recruited under false pretences, then held and forced to run criminal operations, sometimes under brutal conditions.
The military spokesperson Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun accused leaders of the Karen National Union (KNU), an armed ethnic organisation opposed to the junta, of involvement in the KK Park projects. The allegation echoes earlier claims that a company linked to the Karen group leased land for the compound; the KNU denies any role in running or directing scam operations.
Starlink, the satellite internet service run by SpaceX, does not hold licences to operate in Myanmar, but hundreds of terminals have been smuggled into the country. State media said dozens of Starlink units were seized in the raid. SpaceX has policies prohibiting use of its services for deceptive or fraudulent conduct; the company did not respond immediately to requests for comment reported alongside the raid announcement.
The crackdown comes amid growing international attention on organised cyberscams in Southeast Asia. In recent weeks the United States and Britain imposed sanctions on figures tied to a major Cambodian cyber fraud network, and U.S. authorities unsealed an indictment in New York against an alleged ringleader. Myanmar has seen multiple previous crackdowns on scam centres, including operations in 2023 and earlier this year.
Separately, pressure from China helped spur a joint operation by Thailand and Myanmar in February that freed thousands of people from scam compounds, working with ethnic armed groups that control swathes of the borderlands. Humanitarian and investigative reports have highlighted that scam centres often rely on cross-border trafficking and coercion, and that dismantling them requires coordination across borders and with local actors.
The military report did not provide a timeline for when the photos were taken or detail the next legal steps for those detained. Independent verification of the raid’s full scope, the nationalities of detainees, and the conditions at KK Park is limited because the area is contested and access for journalists and aid groups is restricted.
