Priscilla A. Clapp

Sep 26, 2024 | usip.org | Jason Tower |Priscilla A. Clapp

Transnational crime groups in Southeast Asia, hit with intense scrutiny and law enforcement action earlier this year, are moving into new areas and adapting their operations as they revive and expand global scam operations. In Myanmar — a key center of this internet-based criminal activity — extreme political instability combined with the connivance of the country’s military and its militias continue to provide fertile ground for crime groups, albeit in new configurations.

Aug 21, 2024 | usip.org | Priscilla A. Clapp |Erin West

From their base in ungoverned stretches of Southeast Asia, international criminal networks are prowling the Internet, seeking to defraud victims around the world with sophisticated and psychologically devastating scams. Gangsters operating out of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, relying on forced labor, have spread their tentacles through Asia, Africa and Latin America and increasingly within the United States, stripping gullible prey of at least $64 billion annually.

Apr 22, 2024 | usip.org | Priscilla A. Clapp

China’s campaign has forced many scam centers along its border in northern Shan State to close and more to migrate to Karen State. Repatriation of almost 45,000 people from the scam syndicates’ compounds, including major crime bosses, has provided Chinese authorities with new intelligence on the Myanmar military’s profitable involvement with the centers.

Aug 12, 2023 | thediplomat.com | Priscilla A. Clapp

The recent turmoil in Myanmar’s Kokang province on its northeastern border with China, while minor in scale compared to past ethnic conflict in the country, nonetheless has ominous implications for prospects of achieving a national peace agreement in the near future and for Myanmar’s relations with China. Fighting in Kokang broke out on February 9, after the leader of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army returned to Kokang from five years of exile somewhere nearby.

Jun 26, 2023 | usip.org | Priscilla A. Clapp |Jason Tower

That is roughly how it goes along Myanmar’s lawless border, with variations for geography and the local cast of characters. Late last year, awareness began to rise in the region that Myanmar’s criminal enclaves were metastasizing, and the call to do something about it grew louder from the media, civil society and governments.