infamous

The military also confiscated 30 Starlink satellites from the sprawling KK Park scam centre on the border with Thailand.

Myanmar’s military says it has arrested more than 2,000 people in a raid on KK Park, an infamous scam centre on the border with Thailand, according to state media.

The sprawling compound was used by international criminal syndicates to carry out illegal gambling, money laundering, and online romance and investment scams, the Myanmar Alin daily reported on Monday.

Operations were spread across more than 250 low-rise buildings, according to the media report. They included warehouses, shophouses, and dozens of one and two-storey buildings.

During the raid, the military also seized 30 Starlink satellites, Myanmar Alin said.

The satellites are built and run by Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and can keep compounds connected to the internet, even during power cuts.

Authorities also arrested 2,198 people, among them 445 women, 1,645 men and 98 male security guards, although the newspaper did not list their nationalities.

KK Park is located in Kayin State’s Myawaddy Township, which lies just across the river from the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

The area has seen recent fighting between Myanmar’s military, the People’s Defence Force – the armed wing of Myanmar’s National Unity Government, formed by elected lawmakers, which operates from exile after it was ousted in the 2021 military coup – and armed Karen ethnic groups, according to Myanmar Alin.

Myanmar has been embroiled in a civil war since the coup in 2021, with fighting between the military, armed opposition groups and ethnic armies.

Military spokesperson Major-General Zaw Min Tun said on Monday in a statement that the top leaders of the Karen National Union, one of the groups fighting the military, were involved in the scam projects at KK Park, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Myanmar has been under pressure from Thailand and China to curb scam centre activity, which has drawn in criminal groups, particularly Chinese crime syndicates.

The issue became a cause célèbre in China in January when Chinese actor Wang Xing was trafficked to a scam centre and later rescued by Thai police.

Employees of the scam centres are often themselves victims of human trafficking, lured by the promise of employment but then forced to carry out online scams in slave-like conditions, according to rights groups.

Thai police estimate that as many as 100,000 people are working in scam operations on the Thai-Myanmar border alone, according to Reuters.

Scam centres have spread across Southeast Asia over the past five years, but their epicentre has been in Myanmar and Cambodia. They net international criminal groups billions of dollars each year.

The Department of the Treasury in the United States in September sanctioned more than 20 companies and individuals in Cambodia and Myanmar who were allegedly involved in scam operations.

VIKTOR GYOKERES’ penalty should not have been overturned. The Arsenal forward went through on goal and was fouled by Nick Pope.

Newcastle goalkeeper Pope got a touch on the ball but he did not win the ball. The touch does not negate the award of a penalty.

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Why did VAR get involved? It was not a clear and obvious error from referee Jarred Gillett. The on-field decision should have stood.

Gyokeres played it onto Pope, that is how he got the touch and then there is a late challenge and brings him down.

How many times do you see a foul given for a player that wins the ball and follows through?

The touch does not mean it is not a penalty. VAR should not have got involved.

We saw this last season at Brighton when William Saliba was adjudged to have committed a foul on Joao Pedro after he headed the ball.

Newcastle then wanted a penalty of their own late on after Anthony Elanga’s cross struck Gabriel’s arm inside the box.

But Gillett got this right. It was not a penalty.

It was a blocked tackle, it came back off Elanga and hit Gabriel’s arm, which was in a natural position.

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When you go to ground, where else can your arm go? Your arm has got to be in the air.

And look at the pace of the ball and the close proximity.

I would have been amazed if Gillett would have recommended a review.

AN XXL Labubu doll worth more than £100,000 was uncovered by Hong Kong police during a major raid on Tuesday morning.

The gang, suspected of laundering £4 billion, had been under surveillance for two and a half years – but police never expected to find a giant plush toy among their illicit haul.

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According to the South Morning China Post, the seized goods belonged to the Triad syndicate – one of the oldest and most notorious criminal organisations in China.

Hong Kong police launched a large-scale raid on Tuesday, writing in a post on X: “When the time was ripe – the HKPF mounted the territory-wide anti-triad ‘Operation HIDDENARROW’ on July 29, 2025.”

The force seized €780,000 in cash, 11,000 bottles of wine, luxury watches, gold and a 5ft2 Labubu doll.

The figure is said to be rare – one of fifteen of its kind in the world.

A similar piece went under the hammer in Beijing in June for around £113,000.

As many as 82 suspects were reportedly arrested during the operation – 55 men and 27 women, ranging in age from 19 to 78.

Among them was the alleged 44-year-old ringleader.

He is suspected of running the operation and involving friends and family in the money laundering scheme.

Police added on X: “The ringleader manipulated his family & friends as well as the members of his gang into laundering the crime proceeds via calculated means.”

They listed this means as “continuously laundering the illicit funds via a trust company” and “committing #LoanFraud – using some seemingly lawful import trades as fronts.”

The gang’s funds came from prostitution, drug trafficking and illegal gambling, according to police.

Police said they froze assets worth around £115 million.

It’s still unclear whether Triad was banking on a rise in the Labubu doll’s value, were fans of the character or whether the toy might be a fake.

Labubus have taken the internet by storm – with Chinese toymaker Pop Mart’s valuation skyrocketing to £31.6bn.

The cult collectable dolls have been spotted dangling from the designer bags of Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and David Beckham.

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