Four more members of Myanmar-based crime group executed in China

Four members of a mafia family convicted of causing the deaths of six Chinese citizens and running fraud and gambling operations from Myanmar worth more than $4 billion have been executed in China, Chinese authorities said.

The People's Court in Shenzhen, southern China, announced that the executions had been carried out, without specifying where.

This follows the announcement last week that 11 people accused of running a fraud center in Myanmar, on the border with China, had been executed.

A court in Shenzhen sentenced five people to death in November, including members of the notorious Bai mafia family, for running fraud centers and casinos.

One of the convicted group patriarch (leader) Bai Suocheng died after the verdict was handed down, the court announced.

The group has established centers in the Kokang region of Myanmar, which borders China, and is accused of running gambling and fraud operations from there that include kidnapping, extortion, forced prostitution, and drug production and trafficking.

They defrauded victims of more than 29 billion yuan ($4,2 billion) and caused the deaths of six Chinese nationals and injuries to others, the court said.

Their crimes are "particularly heinous, with particularly aggravating circumstances and consequences, posing an enormous threat to society," the court said in a statement.

The convicts appealed the verdict, but the Guangdong Higher People's Court rejected their appeal.

The executions are part of China's broader crackdown on fraud operations in Southeast Asia where fraud centers have become an industrial-scale business, particularly in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.