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One Chinese judicial body has sentenced five top members of a well-known Burmese organized crime group to execution as Chinese authorities continues its crackdown on scam networks in the region.

Overall, 21 Bai family members and associates were sentenced of fraud, homicide, assault and additional crimes, said a official report released on the judicial website.

The family is among a handful of mafias that became dominant in the 2000s and transformed the underdeveloped backwater town of Laukkaing into a wealthy hub of casinos and red-light districts.

In recent years they pivoted to scams in which thousands of trafficked workers, several of them Chinese, are caught, mistreated and obligated to cheat victims in criminal activities worth huge sums.

Specifics of the Verdict

Mafia head Bai Suocheng and his heir the younger Bai were included in the several men given to death by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. Another individual, Hu Xiaojiang and Chen Guangyi were the additional punished.

Two individuals of the clan syndicate were given conditional death penalties. Several were given to life imprisonment, while nine others were given jail sentences between three to 20 years.

The Bais, who controlled their own armed group, set up 41 compounds to host their online fraud activities and gambling houses, authorities reported.

Scale of Criminal Operations

These criminal operations entailed exceeding twenty-nine billion yuan ($4.1bn; £3.1bn). They also resulted in the deaths of several from China individuals, the suicide of one and multiple harm, official sources stated.

The strict sentences issued by the court are within the Chinese initiative to eradicate the large fraud networks in Southeast Asia - and deliver a strong warning to other illegal organizations.

Background of the Clans

Such families rose to power in the 2000s with the assistance of Min Aung Hlaing - who is in charge of the country's regime. He had wanted to support allies in Laukkaing after ousting its earlier leader.

Within the clans, the this family were "the most powerful", the son earlier told state media.

Back then, we was the dominant in both the political and armed circles," he remarked in a documentary about the clan, aired on national media in July.

In the same film, a individual at one of fraud facilities recalled the mistreatment he had suffered at the location: besides being hit, he had his nails removed with pliers and two of his digits cut off with a tool.

More Charges

The son is included in those who were given to execution in the latest ruling. He has additionally been separately sentenced of conspiring to traffic and make eleven tons of narcotics, official sources announced.

Decline of the Clans

Their downfall occurred in recent times as political winds changed.

Over a long period Beijing has urged the local government to control scam operations in the area.

Last year, the authorities released detention orders for the key members of these families.

The patriarch, the Bai family's patriarch, was included in the figures who were handed to Beijing from Myanmar in the beginning of the year.

"Why is the authorities putting such extensive work to pursue the clans?" a Chinese investigator said in the summer documentary.

This serves as a warning groups, no matter your identity, your base, as long as you engage in these serious crimes against the nationals, you will be held accountable."