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A China's court has handed down death sentences to five prominent members of an infamous Myanmar organized crime group to execution as Chinese authorities maintains its crackdown on scam activities in South East Asia.

In all, 21 Bai family individuals and collaborators were convicted of fraud, homicide, injury and other offenses, reported a state media document posted on the court portal.

The family is among a few of organized crime groups that became dominant in the early 2000s and converted the impoverished remote area of Laukkaing into a profitable hub of casinos and red-light districts.

Over the past few years they pivoted to fraudulent schemes in which numerous of smuggled people, many of them from China, are ensnared, abused and obligated to cheat targets in illegal enterprises estimated at billions of dollars.

Details of the Verdict

Mafia boss the patriarch and his son Bai Yingcang were among the several individuals given to execution by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. Yang Liqiang, Hu Xiaojiang and A fourth person were the additional convicted.

Two members of the clan syndicate were given delayed executions. Five were given to life in prison, while nine others were handed prison sentences between several years to two decades.

The Bais, who led their own armed group, established 41 compounds to host their cyberscam operations and betting establishments, officials reported.

Scale of Criminal Schemes

Such illegal activities included more than 29bn yuan ($4.1 billion; over three billion pounds). They also resulted in the fatalities of six from China nationals, the self-inflicted death of an individual and several assaults, reports announced.

The severe sentences issued by the judicial body are a component of the Chinese initiative to eliminate the extensive fraud rings in Southeast Asia - and send a strong signal to additional criminal groups.

Context of the Families

These clans rose to power in the recent decades with the support of a prominent figure - who is in charge of Myanmar's regime. The leader had aimed to prop up partners in Laukkaing after replacing its previous ruler.

Among the groups, the Bais were "the top", Bai Yingcang before informed official sources.

Back then, the clan was the most powerful in both the government and armed circles," he stated in a film about the Bai family, broadcast on national media in July.

During the film, a worker at one of illegal operations narrated the mistreatment he had endured there: besides being assaulted, he had his nails removed with pliers and a couple of his fingers amputated with a kitchen knife.

Further Charges

Bai Yingcang is included in those who were given to execution in the latest ruling. He has additionally been independently sentenced of conspiring to traffic and manufacture eleven tons of narcotics, official sources stated.

End of the Groups

The families' downfall happened in recent times as situations changed.

For years Beijing has encouraged the Myanmar junta to control scam operations in the area.

Last year, the authorities issued arrest warrants for the most prominent individuals of these groups.

The patriarch, the clan's head, was among the warlords who were handed to Beijing from the country in recent months.

For what reason is the authorities making such extensive work to go after the groups?" a Chinese investigator said in the July film.

"It's to warn groups, no matter who you are, your base, when you carry out such terrible offenses against the Chinese people, you will pay the price."