A surge in cyberfraud, human trafficking, and organized crime is sweeping through Laos’s Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ)—a casino-centric enclave led by the Chinese-owned Kings Romans Group. Experts describe the zone as a “scam factory,” where criminal syndicates exploit lax regulations to orchestrate large-scale online scams targeting victims globally.
Reports estimate these Mekong-based criminal networks may be stealing over 43.8 billion US dollars annually, facilitated through a sophisticated web of operations in the GTSEZ—spanning fraud, trafficking, narcotics, illegal wildlife trade, and laundering.
Victim testimonies paint a harrowing picture: African and Southeast Asian workers lured by fake job offers are held captive inside scam compounds. Forced to operate dozens of phones around the clock under threat of violence, these victims are part of the growing online fraud machine flooding the global digital economy.
The US Treasury sanctioned GTSEZ leader Zhao Wei in 2018 under the Magnitsky Act, accusing him of orchestrating illicit casino operations, human and animal trafficking. The UK followed in 2023 with further sanctions, citing forced labor and digital scamming against foreign victims, many of them young and vulnerable.
Cyber Slavery and Scams: U.S. Sanctions Burmese Wa...rlord and Militia Over Human Trafficking Network
Despite multiple high-profile raids in 2023 and 2024, which led to mass arrests, critics argue that enforcement remains patchy. Meanwhile, the GTSEZ continues expanding, adding new casinos, ports, and hospitality infrastructure in a regulatory vacuum.
Regional governments are now under pressure to act. These networks also fuel the infamous “pig butchering” romance scams, an industry estimated at 60 billion US dollars annually, with victims in the West, Asia, and Australia.
Asian Crime Syndicates Expand Global Reach, Masquerading as Legitimate Enterprises
The GTSEZ has become a symbol of the cybercrime era—a glittering façade masking one of the world’s most dangerous convergence points of tech and trafficking.
