Ex-China soldier escapes Myanmar fraud centre by scaling wall, masking scent with cow dung

An ex-Chinese soldier has told how he escaped a Myanmar scam hub after scaling a wall, applying cow dung to mask his scent and subduing an armed guard.Yang Lei, from northeastern China, shared the thrilling story of his escape after he arrived safely back in China.Yang said he led a tour group of 10 people to Thailand, near the Thai-Myanmar border, in mid-March.The local tour guide he hired did not have a legal residence permit and tried to bypass border control, leading the group to bump into people linked to Myanmar scam hubs.Yang Lei, above, has told of his capture and daring escape to warn others about the dangers of scam centres. Photo: BaiduThere, all the group’s 11 members, including the local guide, were sold to a snakehead at 20,000 USDT per person, which is a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar.The snakehead then sold them to a scam compound in Payathonzu town close to the Three Pagodas Pass.Yang described the compound as “KK 2.0”, referring to the notorious scam-centre KK Park in Myawaddy township.Last year, Myanmar-junta" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="299" data-entity-type="organization">Myanmar junta said it had raided the park, occupied around 200 buildings and released over 2,000 workers.China and Thailand also launched a joint crackdown on the scam hubs together with Myanmar.A Myanmar Military Information Team shows devices seized during a raid on the KK Park online scam centre. Photo: AFPYang said the news gave him the illusion that the Thailand-Myanmar border areas were safe.Further ReadingHowever, he was shocked to see the scam hubs were “like seeds being planted all over the Three Pagodas.”Yang said his group were beaten upon entering the park, as a form of discipline.An ex-soldier who joined the army in 2002 and trained in the motorised infantry, Yang said he received “special treatment” in the park.On the first evening at the park, he beat the local guide half to death because “he dared to claim the bottom bunk after screwing us all over”.He said this impressed the leader of the park, who invited him for a chat, and offered him a phone call to his home.Yang said he was told that usually only those who work for more than a year were allowed a phone call once a month.Yang first lied that his mobile phone was dying, and used their cable to charge the battery from 62 to 98 per cent.Then he called the Chinese police.Cow dung piled at the edge of a field. Yang smeared himself with the stuff to disguise his scent during his escape. Photo: ShutterstockHe walked to the back of his dormitory, where the guard only patrolled once in a while, and noticed some sandbags and wooden boards lying at the foot of the park’s six-metre wall.As a trained soldier, Yang was able to scale the wall and grab the edge of the wall with his fingers. His adrenaline then took over, boosting him to the other side of the wall.Yang said he was lucky because the wires on the wall were not electrified, and next to the wall there was not another park.He escaped the park wearing only a tank top, shorts and Crocs. He checked the map app and found that he was only 3km from the border.“But I could not run towards there. There would be sentries and I would be sent back to the park,” Yang said.He ran into the mountains, and applied cow dung he found in the grass, to mask his scent and trick tracking dogs.He said he was too nervous and excited to feel the pain from the thorns he was passing through.Yang said reached the border at around 1am the next day.He said the border was guarded by an armed man, so he hid until 3am but the man would not leave, so he grabbed a strong straw rope lying around, approached the man from the back and subdued him.He reached Thailand around dawn the next day.Yang spoke to his former comrade-in-arms, and several police officers on a chat app during his escape, checking the phone once every hour.Even when he was in Thailand, he remained vigilant, hiding during the day and running for his life at night.People from China, Vietnam and Ethiopia, believed to have been trafficked and forced to work in scam centres, sit with their faces masked while in detention after being released. Photo: APHe only felt relieved after arriving at the Chinese embassy in Thailand. He said by the time he was at the embassy his phone still had 17 per cent battery.After waiting for half a month for his passport to be reissued, he returned to China.Speaking of this experience on his account @qianmanman, Yang said he still has nightmares: “I dream about running in the mountains and end up covered in sweat.”Yang said he shared his experience to warn others in the hope that the scam parks will be eliminated one day.On social media, many people were shocked by Yang’s experience.“You are a legend,” one person said.