people have to say, that's why we listen to every weekend on d w, 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. i cannot just say that i want to pull out the half 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 doctor visits 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 car 4 hours. that's when we realized to be, i'm not going to button i was so scared the

vin, the comp, honda house degree, which is all shit and we were told to hide with the picks. we don't understand what is happening here. they hide 4 hours under the cover of dogs 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 there are 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. maya. now the trapped inside this is the river that are in crossed, the mo, you, mux, the buddhist separating thailand, didn't me in my, on the me side. 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 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 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 gold uniforms.

they all the and take me up the pool. the gold 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 in k k. polk our needs lucas from west africa. he was also traffic to him to the compound they received detailed instructions on how to scan people. upon arriving at the compound, we reviewed several of these manuals and the casualty. explain how to build trust and exploit weaknesses and the so called client, such as be funny, make clients fall in love with you so deeply that they forget. at 1st thing. sometimes it is the need for loans and sometimes it has the need to connect with

others what i leave. we don't have a lot of asian population. i was talking with some asian 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 to come and see work. so and, and this person was so kind and she said, i'm going to teach you the crypto currencies like bitcoin are increasing the popular as investments. the risk is high, but so the margins for profit, they are largely unregulated and transactions are difficult to trace. that also makes them attractive for organized crime. the so i chose,

so this person and, you know, i, i let him teach me. you're investing the website, you can see a funds there. you can take out the money. the scamarus grew the victims also in 4 months and just wait them to invest more and more. laura, so the website was legitimate. she believed she exchange test savings for 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 in. i could then withdraw them. and this person was, was pushing me to invest more money into, into this crypto currency. the websites 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 a criminal, though is a bad person until one day someone reached out to us and said he had been traffic to into this skim comp time. and i was so shocked to hear how big the companies is like running a cooperation the people of trafficked in from all over the world. but several sources confirms that the pulses in the compound are chinese. they track screen time on work phones and

randomly inspect rooms secure to us checking computers, seeing if we have the natural or plain lucas, an errand received financial targets numbers of clients to be contacted, an amount of money to be scammed. if there is no plans that no no lunch, if someone checks and you didn't reply to a client the be to all make use done 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 choice side of the buddha. they help traffic to

victims escape from these fruitful compounds. 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's been problematic to the buses and so you've refused to work. so then they're going to sell you to another compound when victims are transferred to another chromosomes, they also go through thailand because the roads of foster, i'm say, so this is judah, and michelle's only chance 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 assign goes dot, because chase, it goes around town. i need to let some as soon as they can, because if they stop at a traffic light,

it's the chance to get out. there's not response that's 713 and his update or if it's live tracking hasn't updated for 1112 the story of these scams. factories begins in beijing with a grandiose announcement for me and we stand ready to join people around the world to build the built in road initiative. valuable in 2013 china is head of state champagne, announced a massive investment program abroad. the belts and road initiative was intended to link shy next no such a global trade. one of its biggest target countries was me in month it was the opening shop for chinese investors to russian built outs infrastructure, and this impoverished country. but it was also an opportunity for

a much shady business here in korean states 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 you. i can take gambling town on the boulder, the chinese businessman should judge young as seems signing the project next to him. the head of the former rebels turned board accounts. the chinese government reports initially hailed this project as an integral part of bilson road emissions. only when reports of wide

spread organized fluid sprang up to phasing distance itself. just 2 years later, a few, columbus su styles the same solemn scenes saying 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. or he also goes by the nickname broke into this k k polk. the scam compound lies 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 the 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 calls several times and waits in shacks along the river. once they cross to the ties side, traffic hills will take them to the north. standby. there

in town and there like literally if we had tons down that straight there at the end of the street. 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, the a hi there, right down the street behind and we just, we just bypass the, the united nations also some drugs and crime estimates step so called pick, butchering scans 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 li transferred the funds to a wallet used by scammers, to hide its trace criminals, rerouted the money until it reached wallets k. k pop uses to pull the defrauded funds. these wallets then made several direct transfers to other accounts, including this one. millions of yours was encrypt or passed through it. we were able to identify, i'm 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, home and 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 and, and popularized has them. this is jason tower, a leading experts 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 truman and shrink a broken shoes. here we can see him visiting the type problems of 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 full team k try out. one of the home comes largest guns, notorious for his ruthlessness he took over as the 14 k lead to

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 estate, 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 homebound 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, more powerful, more and more influential and more and more in edit, in 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 to end on now driving to an unknown location. now is that sounds to interest that they were gonna be looking guys for a vehicle. um or looking for a tech to see with the license plate $95.00 yellow and blue coming up on that side of the right. that could be them right there. 965. it's probably $65.00, and they get $600.00. that's the river right there guys. at the bridge the

it does show over 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 in the traffic that's to come up. so can we tell them i think 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 for like a 5. 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. yeah, yeah, yeah. we're coming down the direction the the government. okay.

the we have 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 charged them with violating immigration laws, which might mean more time behind falls this time in an official detention center.

you never actually switch off then you try to give the victims a chance to it's a painful a chance to kind of breeze. um for the 1st time, perhaps in 8910 months they've ever taken a breath to give them afraid to use the same thing. if there's any way i'm gonna turn out, that's how we're gonna be court. is there gonna be something that comes in off them? off this moment of rest probably to the last 2 or 3 days, then they must report to the parties. it was not an easy experience. and i hope i can go back to my country and find a job that i was credited to for, to start a new life, the

the more just sustainable fishing than just fishing. when i la and go out to sea together. big

old cultural heritage. sharefile's fishing is a traditional technique archipelago of care kind of it's important says lead artist, a mean it to be, it's in bassett or eco advocate. in 30 minutes on d w. this handbook will people be able to survive is a big one. the ground underneath this metropolis of 16000000 is a size making hotspot. geologist, say, patch a tester. feet is overdue, and that inhabitants are in grave danger. is there a way out? dissemble on the brink. in 75 minutes on d. w. version now. understand. can have

a site like the light is presented. do you have any news on instagram and the no follow up the this is dw news and these are top stories. the white house says it's waiting, it's options for a quote, consequential response to deadly droned, strikes on us troops. the attack hit a military outpost in jordan known as the tower, $22.00, killing 3 soldiers and winning dozens more. us president joe biden has blamed a run back militants that we run denies being involved. united nations has begun an investigation into its agency for palestinian refugees known as on raw. the organization is facing intense scrutiny since is really choose some of its staff of being in.