Thailand has extradited Shi Zhixiang, the owner of Southeast Asia’s largest cyber scam and illegal gambling network. Chinese national Xixiang was arrested in Thailand in 2022. In 2014, a Chinese court convicted him of running an illegal lottery. Zhejiang runs illegal online gambling business.

Thai police arrested him with the help of Interpol at China’s request. This week the Thai court upheld his extradition order, after which he was sent to China. He reached Bangkok airport on Wednesday, accompanied by two security officers. This extradition happened at a time when the King of Thailand is visiting China for the first time.

Who is Shi Zhixiang?

Shi Zhixiang was born in 1982 in a poor village in Hunan province of China. He left school at the age of 14 and started learning computer coding. At the age of 20, he moved to the Philippines and entered the online gambling business there.

Gradually Shi Zhixiang expanded his business to Cambodia, Myanmar and other countries in South-East Asia. Its most talked about projects include Shwe Koko City of Myanmar, which is located near the Thailand border. Zhejiang promoted the city as a resort city for Chinese tourists, but activities like fraud, money laundering and human trafficking took place there.

Lakhs of people trapped in scam centers

According to the United Nations, millions of people are trapped in several scam centers in South-East Asia. They are trapped by giving false job offers and forced to commit online fraud. Many of these people are Chinese citizens, due to which the Chinese government is worried. In recent months, China has also given death penalty to members of mafia families running several scams.

Zhejiang denies the allegations

Shi Xixiang and his company Yatai have been banned by the US and Britain due to their human rights abuses and scam business. However, Zhixiang has denied the allegations of fraud and scam. He says that scammers can enter Shwe Koko city because the city is open to everyone.