Five people have been sentenced to death in China for their involvement in a violent criminal gang with fraud operations in Myanmar's Kokang region, Chinese state media has reported.

Scam compounds have flourished in Myanmar's lawless borderlands, staffed by foreigners — many of them Chinese — who often say they were trafficked and forced to swindle people online, part of a multibillion-dollar illicit industry.

Beijing has stepped up cooperation with Southeast Asian nations in recent months to crack down on the compounds and thousands of people have been repatriated to China.

The crimes of the five people sentenced on Tuesday had led to the "deaths of six Chinese nationals, one Chinese national's suicide and injuries to several others", official news agency Xinhua said, citing a court

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