Wei Huairen led the Wei clan in Myanmar’s Kokang region, heading the family’s Henry Group conglomerate after serving as a border guard militia commander and chairman of the 1006 Border Battalion Supervision Committee.
The family created a network of compounds in Laukkai, the Kokang region’s capital. From 2017, it established 14 telecoms fraud sites presented as industrial parks.
From those sites, the syndicate conducted large-scale telecoms scams and illegal gambling, while also engaging in narcotics trafficking, extortion and cross-border human smuggling. Chinese authorities said its fraud, gambling, extortion and human-trafficking operations handled more than 12.2 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) in criminal funds since 2019, targeting people across China.
Wei’s position allowed the family to use officially recognised regular border forces, rather than the private armed groups used by other telecoms fraud organisations in northern Myanmar.
Chen Dawei, Wei Huairen’s nephew, was trained as the clan’s next-generation armed enforcer. He used private militias in killings, including those of two Chinese nationals who had broken internal rules, according to the case against the syndicate.
Prices for the sale and ransom of Chinese nationals trapped by the network rose above 300,000 yuan.
A trial held in May concerned 61 members of the family-run syndicate, convicted of operating cyber scam centres as well as illegal detention and extortion networks from northern Myanmar.
On Tuesday, 13 October 2026, the Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court and the Nanan City People’s Court in southeastern Fujian province sentenced Wei Huairen, Chen Dawei and Liao Jingfang to death. The courts held them responsible for large cross-border telecoms fraud networks that caused the deaths of four Chinese nationals.
Wei Qingtao, Kang Min and Xiong Hengxing, three other key defendants, were each sentenced to life in prison.
A further 55 accomplices received prison terms from 39 months to 24 years. The courts also ordered broad asset confiscations, heavy fines and deportations where applicable.
The Wei family is the third of Kokang’s so-called “four families” to face Chinese legal judgment, following the Ming and Bai families.
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