After Myanmar’s military junta raided a notorious scam compound and destroyed buildings with explosives in October, officials claimed the country would entirely “eradicate” forced scamming within its borders. Now newly released satellite images of the targeted KK Park scam center reveal that only buildings in one limited section of the compound were destroyed during the initial raids. Experts on scam compounds, meanwhile, say the entire effort is likely “propaganda.”
High-resolution images of the KK Park scam compound, which is located near the Myanmar-Thailand border, show how military forces have razed multiple buildings to the ground, leaving piles of rubble remaining in their place. However, the images show the destruction is, so-far, only confined to the Eastern side of the gigantic compound—with hundreds of buildings across the vast compound being left untouched.
Multiple experts tell WIRED that the raids at KK Park and some other scam compounds are likely part of a wider “performative” effort by Myanmar’s military government, which has come under increasing pressure to tackle the highly lucrative scam compounds that have flourished in recent years. They also raise concerns about the welfare of thousands of people forced to run scams in KK Park.
“The junta is making it sound as though they’re taking down the entire compound, and the imagery that we have seen so far is only limited to one section,” says Eric Heintz, a global analyst at the International Justice Mission, an anti-slavery organization. “It’s important to keep monitoring this to verify what they’re actually doing and [see] if this is just for show or if they’re actually cracking down on the real problem.”
The satellite images, which were taken on November 16, appear to show that some buildings located around courtyards have been almost totally destroyed, with debris strewn around other buildings. Heintz says that the images, plus extra social media footage, indicates that some “villas” and dormitories where trafficking victims may have been housed appear to have been damaged or destroyed. (Myanmar’s military government has said further destruction started on November 17; third-party reports also suggest more buildings have been destroyed).
“All of the critical buildings that you would need to perpetrate the scams are still intact and still ready for use,” says Mechelle B Moore, the CEO of anti-trafficking nonprofit Global Alms Incorporated, which is based in Thailand and works to help people who have trafficked into scam compounds in Myanmar. “They’re putting on a good show right now to say that they don’t support scamming compounds or human trafficking. But what they’ve allowed is all the scamming syndicates—all of the scamming bosses and supervisors—have been allowed to flee,” Moore claims.
Over the last decade, dozens of scam compounds have appeared in Southeast Asia, primarily across Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Often operated by or linked to Chinese organized crime groups, the compounds trick people into working at them—often with the offer of high-paying jobs—and then force them to run a range of scams. Trafficking victims often have their passports taken; they can be tortured or beaten if they refuse to scam. By stealing from people around the world, the compounds have made billions for the organized crime groups.
Amid the extensive criminality, KK Park has emerged as one of the largest and most notorious scam compounds in Myanmar. Five years ago, the site was a series of fields near the town of Myawaddy, but has since been transformed into a sprawling compound with hundreds of buildings and thousands of people held there.
Since the middle of October, Myanmar’s military junta has been conducting raids on KK Park and since mid-November the Shwe Kokko compound. The sites are linked to “telecom” fraud and illegal gambling operations, government statements say. A statement from Myanmar’s Ministry of Information published online on Wednesday says officials are “dismantling and removing illegal buildings, and taking further action in accordance with the law.”
The statement claims that officials are demolishing buildings in three areas of KK Park and since the raids began a “a total of 237 buildings out of 635 illegal buildings have so far been demolished.” It says that 1,847 “undocumented foreign entrants” have been detained, along with more than 3,000 computers, and 21,000 mobile phones, plus 102 Starlink satellite internet systems. Multiple Myanmar government departments did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment. A member of Myanmar’s London embassy said they would prefer to discuss the topic in person, which was not viable ahead of publication, but did not otherwise comment.
“From 30 January to 25 November 2025, a total of 12,687 foreign nationals who had entered Myanmar illegally were detained,” the junta’s Ministry of Information statement says. “Of these, 12,343 individuals were screened to be expelled, and 10,029 were systematically repatriated to their respective countries through Thailand in accordance with legal procedures.”
Alongside multiple government statements, AP reporting says that state television in Myanmar has been broadcasting “extensive” video footage of buildings being dismantled in KK Park and the unusually detailed reports “appear to reflect the military government’s desire to publicize its efforts after months of bad publicity.” Some video footage shows steamrollers crushing thousands of smartphones and computers.
“This is really performative and it continues to be the case,” says Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. “I think around 20,000 devices were destroyed, which is tragic in terms of just mass amounts of evidence lost.”
Myanmar’s recent high-profile crackdown on KK Park and the Shwe Kokko compounds could be driven by multiple reasons, the experts WIRED spoke to say. The United States government has recently set up a Scam Center Strike Force that has targeted the infrastructure and organizations allegedly behind the compounds, including sanctioning armed groups that support the military regime in Myanmar for their alleged involvement in the criminality. China has also extradited an alleged criminal boss who is linked to scam centers and sentenced others to death. The military government is also holding a widely criticized election in December.
“The new sanctions have put a lot of pressure on the Myanmar military to try and do something in response to this. But this is definitely a propaganda scheme,” Moore says. “We have several different groups that are being held in scamming compounds. Groups of victims that are too scared to leave, even though the crime syndicates have left or they’re being held under guard and they’re not allowed to leave.”
Tower says another development, which is more significant than the military junta action, has come from anti-government, resistance groups also starting to disrupt scam compounds; he points to one group, the Karen National Liberation Army, recently taking over a compound. “I think this was the first time on the Karen border that you’ve seen resistance forces really step in to put pressure on the military and to take this issue up as part of their revolutionary activity,” Tower says.
Meanwhile, Heintz says that when people enslaved in scam compounds are freed or escape, authorities need to properly class them as victims of human trafficking and not treat them as criminals themselves. “It’s crucial that every individual undergoes a proper victim screening and identification process to ensure that trafficking survivors receive the protection and justice they deserve,” he says, “and that critical intelligence is secured and used to stop these criminal trafficking networks.”
The post The Destruction of a Notorious Myanmar Scam Compound Appears to Have Been ‘Performative’ appeared first on Wired.
