of the the, sometimes it's hard to find what you're looking for. but we've got something for you. the i was hoping to go and when overseas, and one day i was approached, it starts with an attractive job offer a broad and it ends in modern slavery. kind of just see that i want to pull out the have guns the come shoot you here in southeast asia, thousands of people of traffic to into secret sites where they are false to scam unsuspecting victims across the globe. i was so shocked to hear how big the

company's it's like running a corporation, the only hope a few volunteers and acts of us to help them escape were coming down. but who is behind this rachel scam factory? we go to one of the largest scamming operations in southeast asia to track down the perpetrators. we followed the money and it let us to a vast criminal network, spending the globe he says he used to fight for the cartels and now he fights for the chinese communist part of the. the in 2022 aaron was

finishing his university degree in the country in southern africa when he was recruited by a technology company based and thailand. on google maps, i could see the have different locations, some of them in thailand. i thought everything was legit until i go to bangkok. when i arrived in black hole, i saw someone was waiting for me with a sign my name or something. it took me to a car with 2 other guys. we were suppose to go to a hotel that is like maybe 10 minutes away from the airport, but we drove in a different direction instead of a 10 minute ride. aaron was in the coffee hours. that's when we realized to be, i'm not going to button cold. i was so scared

the vin, the compact. that house is a group is off shit and we were told to hide with the picks. we don't understand what's happening here. they hide 4 hours under the cover of the dog that taken to a nearby river the you must keep down, keep down. now we are really afraid

the boat came. they put top box in the people with guns. they said we should get in the boat and we across the room and the rest of the group were brought to a come home surrounded by how it is with fault maia. now that trapped inside this is the river that are in crossed the mo, you, mux, the boat of separating thailand, didn't me in my, on the nice site it isn't always clear who is in control of the full, most of its history. me in law has been ruled by appraisal ministry regime. but here at the eastern border with thailand on the groups of the korean, the ethnic minority have fought for the independence. both a decade ago, the reality on the ground changed. some groups still fight the government.

but others have made a deal with it. the means military today, these former rebels form the official border guard forces and an exchange. they are free to pursue their own business interests. k, k cox. this is where are in this taken to thousands of traffic to enforce, to scam people in china, the western europe. there are a few compounds like this in the area. but this one is the most notorious. and the most secretive lines, the palm soldiers go off the entrances and cctv cameras everywhere. the we reviewed exclusive images taken from within the compound and spoke to several

victims who were held here. they will recognize the badges on the call to uniforms . they all the and take me up the pool to god, forces the fuller rebel to change science. the one thing is leah soldiers from me and malls go to god for a present in k tape hawk. the n k. k. poke our needs lucas from west africa. he was also translates into the compound they received detailed instructions on how to scan people. upon arriving at the compound, we reviewed several of these manuals, and they casually explain how to build trust and exploit weaknesses and the so called clients, such as be funny, make clients fall in love with you so deeply that they forget it for thinks. and

sometimes it is the need for loves and sometimes it has the need to connect with others what i leave, we don't have lots of ation population. i was talking with some ation people online and i met this ation person. he told me he's from california. nora is a chinese immigrants in the western country. after awhile this guy, he says, we have this type of crypto currency. i want to to learn how quick the currency works. so and, and this person will so kind and he said, i'm going to teach you the crypto car and sees like, bitcoin are increasingly popular as investments. the risk is high, but so the margins for profit, they are largely unregulated and transactions are difficult to trace that goal. so

it makes them attractive for organized crime. the. so i chose to this person and you know, i, i let him teach me. you're investing the website, you can see your funds there. you can take out the money. the scam is groomed, the victims also in 4 months and just wait them to invest more in mon, laura. so the website was legitimate. she believed she exchange test savings for a lucrative investment, but instead of money went to a crypto wallet, the equivalent of a digital account controlled by the scammers. i wanted to withdraw a couple of $1000.00 and i couldn't withdraw them. and this person was, was pushing me to invest more money into, into this crypto currency. the website has suddenly down the sky. mother goes

silent and your money is going. this fullness scamming has cooled. pick, butchering the sky, most sutton's the victim. and then goes in for the slaughter and do less wondering why is this person doing this to me? off to being scammed. nora starts with a volunteer group to help others scammed victims. but then something unexpected happened. we thought that everybody in this skim industry is the crewmen, though, is a bad person until one day someone reached out to us and said you had been traffic to into this skim comp time. and i was so shocked to hear how big the company's it's like running a corporation the people of traffic in from all over the world. but several sources confirms that the

pulses and the compound or chinese, they track screen time on work phones and randomly inspect rooms. secure to us checking our computers, seeing if we a d natural or plain lucas, an errand received financial targets numbers of clients to be contacted and the amount of money to be scammed. if there is no client that no no lunch. if someone checks and you didn't reply to atlanta, the beat to all make you stand for hours. we work 17 hours a day. no complains, no holidays, no risk. and if we say we want to leave, they tell us that we've set us or she loves the the last night, i got a message from, from somebody inside the compound saying, i think i'm gonna get out tomorrow, right? judah,

i'm michelle aide. work is on the tie you side of the buddha. they help traffic to victims escape from these fruitful comb pounds. today a group of victims reached out from what i understand. the majority of them have just being disruptive. they have for kids to work. that same problem and take to the buses and so you've refused to work, so then they're going to sell you to another come pounds. when victims are transferred to another, sometimes they also go through thailand because the roads are foster, i'm say, so this is judah and michelle's own neutrons to intercept the group. not every rescue is successful and not every rescue or case provides you with the opportunity to actually tracking into steps. if a sign goes dot, because chase a goes around town,

i need to let them as soon as they can. because if they stop at a traffic light, it's the chance to get out and not respond, incense, 713, and his update. or if it's live tracking hasn't updated for 1112 the story of these scam of factories begins and beijing with a grandiose announcement. for me and we stand ready to join people around the world to build the built in rhode initiative, valuable in 2013 china is head of state she. jean king announced a massive investment program abroad. the belgian road initiative was intended to link try next. i'm such a global trade. one of its biggest target countries was me in month it was the opening shop for chinese investors to rush and build out infrastructure in

this impoverished country. but it was also an opportunity for a much shady business here in korean state near the table with a whole new city sprung up within years destined to be asia's new gambling destination. for chinese clients, the gambling is illegal in mainland china and most of south east asia. but here and this will total cost of me in my. nobody is looking this promotional video shows what the $1000000000.00 investments would look like for a gigantic gambling town on the border. the chinese business men should judge young as seems, finding the project next to him, the head of the phone, the rebels turned to pull the guns. the chinese

government reports initially hailed this project as an integral part of belts and road emissions. only when reports of wide spread organized for which sprang up to phasing distance itself. just 2 years later, a few, columbus su styles the same solemn scenes saw you. she got a placement to become another gambling destination. the visionary, one quite coy and notorious, crying both from a cow present at the groundbreaking ceremony. and he also goes by the nickname broke into this k k polk. the scam compound lives just in the middle of these 2 cuz he knows disease . but he is, there is no public opening ceremony. those behind it remained. a mystery.

room is such late that one of these 2 chinese investors could be behind this cruel operation. but so far, proof remains elusive. hour and then lucas spends several months in k, k. polk, as time pauses, they become increasingly desperate. after the said no salary, we started to complain and then we refused to wake. suddenly they must pack the bags. i had been saying they would sell us to a place the northern me and my wife is who are of no use to the pulse is also a result of the criminal groups. aaron lucas and others are taken to the banks of the marie to hide the traces. they are forced to switch, call several times and waits and checks along the river. once they cross to the ties side track because we'll take them to the north

standby, they're in town and they're like, literally if we had tons down that straight there at the end of the straight right there. you just don't want to drive down to judah and michelle are close to the victims, but intercepting now would be too dangerous. they don't know if the traffic has the last message says we're in a bunker after the river and what's down the end of that reason? it's a really small little narrow road too. so he didn't say he just started sending that live vacation from that one message that we

got could be in a van could be in a house. i see in my thing, he's like pins back into one of those houses. are bouncing around and come back. okay, head out on that street. a hi there, right down the street behind and we just, we just bypass the the united nations, also some drugs and crime estimate step so called pick butchering scams and southeast asia generate more revenue than the drug trade. take a pocket load and makes tens of millions of yours a month. we followed the money trailer from several scammed victims to see

where it leads. like laura, they invested the money in a fake crypto currency site. and on witching lea transferred the funds to a wallet used by scandalous to hide its trace criminals reroute at the money until it reached wallets k. k. puck uses to pull the defrauded funds. these one that's then made several direct transfers to other accounts including this one, millions of yours was encrypted or passed through it. we were able to identify and corroborate that this one that was opened by this chinese business man based in bangkok during the time the cash was flowing long. each one was the vice president of the tie, a trade association located in this building on the fringes of fine cock.

this is also the building of a chinese association. the overseas human culture exchange center. both the location i'm the sense that came into the focus of title storage sees in 2023. this in february, police raided the building on suspicion of serving as a from to for organized crime, along with another cultural association in bangkok using the same name hallman the home men were a chinese secret society, dating back to china's imperial era. with time they developed links with organized crime and close ties with chinese triads. triads of both criminal networks with thousands of members. they operate globally and are involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, extortion,

and other criminal activity. what homeland does is it takes a lot of the symbolism. a lot of the stories of the chinese under world under popularized is them. this is jason tower, a leading expos on organized crime and asia. the scamming operation stemming out of k k talk trace back to a complex network of businesses and associations, used by well connected criminals to legitimize the crimes. and they all lead to one trueman and shrink a broken tooth. here we can see him visiting the time from shift the homeland association, the same one that was rated by local police broke into this rose to power in the eighty's and ninety's as a member of the 14 k try out. one of the home comes largest guns,

notorious for his ruthlessness he took over as the 14 k lead, a neighboring macau, at the time ages gambling capital. but the failed assassination of a prosecutor led to his arrest. he spent more than a decade in jail. when he was released in 2012 times had changed. the cow had been handed over to mainland china. the mafia, both re branded himself as a patriotic business man. he invested in crypto currencies, casinos and real estates, all over asia, and even named be a brand off the home and never missing an opportunity to show his support for china and the communist policy. we must jointly support the cause of national unification and support the great renaissance

of the chinese nation. sitting side one cup lay also has a quote that he uses fairly regular. literally he says, he used to fight for the car towels and now he fights for the chinese communist party in 2018, broken to, to establish the world human history and culture association, an organization that has since spread its presence across the globe to use lights are broken tooth and his homeland association was sanctioned by the united states. in the announcement they drew links between broken, choose the chinese communist policy and bilson, road investments. china has denied these allegations it says i'm clear whether the sanctions had any impact on broken tooth. businesses from bangkok says network continues to expand from southeast asia to africa,

the middle east, and even north america. we really see that these criminal networks are becoming more and more powerful, more and more influential and more and more in that it is different countries around the world. and the efforts by law enforcement are really only touching the tip of the iceberg. at this point, the group of traffic to victims having formed judah and michelle that they have been put some taxes and on now driving to an unknown location. now is that sounds too into saturday. we're going to be looking guys for a vehicle and we're looking for a tech to see what the license plate, $95.00, yellow and blue coming up on that side of the right. that could be them right there . 965. so it's probably $65.00, and they get $600.00 that's the river, right there guys at the bridge. the

show that we're on top of them on the right there. so i think that's i've got the yellow and blue. yeah. and it's, and he's confirmed $65.00, but i mean literally was sitting of the traffic lights to come up. so can we tell them or if they can run the i'm gonna say that everyone's probably heading in the same direction to the same hotel where just that we just saw the traffic lights. okay, where behind the yellow taxi? they turned down a side street. okay,

i can see where they're at. i know we try to tell the rep can you say it? can you say it on the pin? yep. so where just one straight in front of it said behind i can see where they're at and all that. yeah, yeah. yeah, we're coming down the section the the,

i think we're gonna get a minute. okay. to get the partner transferred, the judah and michelle, bring the victims to a safe house when they explain what will happen next will start to use will either recognize them as victims of human trafficking and repack, treat them home or charge them with violating immigration laws, which might mean more time behind balls this time in an official detention center.

you never actually switch off then you try to give the victims a chance to the painful a chance to kind of freeze for the 1st time. perhaps in 8910 months. they've ever taken a breath. give them afraid for the stand. the whole thing is anyway, i'm going to turn out, that's how we going to be caught. is there going to be something that comes in optim off? just moments of risk, probably it will last 2 or 3 days. then they must report to the ortiz. it was not an easy experience and i hope i can go back to my country and find a job that i was graduate to full. to start a new life, the

the how your largest phone line retain left is coping of the short of skilled walk. hey,

i guide almost all correctional processes and humans are at the helm, analyzing things from it's a fully automated operation. most of the time made in time and the see minutes on d w, the

. this is dw use of life in berlin generations joining together to remember germany is dark, is trapped, are german politicians and state representatives gather in berlin to remember the victims of the nazi regime, actual death, camp survivor avis, apache gives a moving account and a ceremony of remembrance also coming up israel flood to most tunnels in gaza. it says it wants to quote, neutralizes tried if a moss subterranean network by pumping sea water into the tunnel complex used by as long as military and the former prime minister of pockets. john receives another jail sentence, him run conn and his wife.