Jason Tower

Jason is an expert on transnational crime and security in Southeast Asia and a senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

[The Red Line - Podcast @TheRedLinePod]

JASON TOWER (@Jason_Tower79) gives us a close look at Beijing’s footprint in Myanmar, from ammunition flows to private militias and criminal crackdowns, and unpacks the complicated, often messy, behind-the-scenes relationships shaping it all. 🇲🇲🇨🇳

https://t.co/POFNCcHgMq

[ORF @orfonline]

.@orfonline hosted a discussion on 'Myanmar's Managed Elections: The Way Ahead'.

The talk explored the recent #MyanmarElections, following a 5-year military-led coup that toppled the then National League of Democracy (NLD) government.

Featuring: @DrCchaviVasisht, @Kalita77j,
@Jason_Tower79, Moe Thuzar, and @sushantsareen

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

Hostage diplomacy: Is the Myanmar military weaponizing foreign trafficking victims to gain leverage over ASEAN around its sham election? @inquirerdotnet reports on the challenges faced by Filipino victims struggling to return from Myanmar

https://t.co/jrzglkRvDh

[Frontier Myanmar @FrontierMM]

This week on our podcast What's Happening in Myanmar, regime releases election results, military appointees are assigned to parliament, and expert Jason Tower discusses resistance infighting and how the China-scam nexus affects regime politics.

Listen: https://t.co/wf2Z8BP8TP

[matthew moore @MattMooreNews]

Inside Myanmar’s BRUTAL Scam Factories with Producer of TRT World’s Emmy Award-winning Off the Grid series @mouhssine, Transnational Organised Crime expert @Jason_Tower79 and Director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates @Reaproy
Click the link below for the full show ⬇️⬇️
https://t.co/pYbqq0l0x7

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

Liu Jiguang was central to the Fully Light Group, which operated several dozen scam compounds and casinos in Kokang, and continues to have assets all over Myanmar. Liu obtained a Cambodia passport around 2019, opened a scam center in Sihanoukville, and rumored to be in Cambodia

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

The Chinese police going after the rest of Min Aung Hlaing’s Kokang border guard force friends? 12/9, China issues arrest warrants and awards of 200,000 yuan for 100 suspects, including key ppl not previously targeted from the Bai and Liu families

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

Bai Yingneng was the son of BGF founder Bai Suocheng (sentenced to death earlier this year) and was a key representative of the military’s proxy party, the USDP, including party chair for Kokang.

[Josh Sheehan 🇲🇲 🪷🌳 @sheehanj920]

@Jason_Tower79 A Burmese translation by Mizzima: https://t.co/35JsFv4rEm

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

@sheehanj920 BGF/KNA, DKBA, UWSA, NDAA, SSPP

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

The rise of ‘patriotic’ scamming: China-linked scam syndicates operating in Myanmar continue to pivot towards targeting the U.S., EU, Japan, and other countries. I look here at how China’s moves in Myanmar are accelerating these trends.

https://t.co/OgpeOQGXp4

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

China-linked scam syndicates continue to go global: newest destination exposed is Egypt, where authorities uncovered a scam syndicate following reports of a Chinese tourist allegedly being kidnapped in Cairo. Eight suspects arrested, and a cache of arms seized in the process.

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

Pleased to share my first article in my new role @GI_TOC; here I provide an update on the continued expansion of Myanmar’s scam empire, and suggestions on how to address these growing threats to regional and global security.

[Global Initiative @GI_TOC]

🇲🇲 Despite crackdowns, #Myanmar’s scam empire is thriving.

The Wang Xing case exposed its reach, but crime groups quickly adapted —shifting victims, creating new markets, and even profiting from “rescues.”

👉Real disruption demands global action: https://t.co/idzqTZxYqk

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

20 year old girl’s family likely paid over US$25,000 in ransom before completely disappearing on 6/30.

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

One rescued, another trafficked? China seems to have failed miserably at preventing its nationals from being trafficked into the scam empire established by the Myanmar army’s Border Guard Force aka the KNA. After rescuing the model Zhong Haobin last week, reports of new victim?

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

Wang Xing 2.0? yet another model trafficked into Myanmar’s scam cities; Zhong Haobin went missing in June according to police reports; Chinese celebrities once again calling for action. Meanwhile complete impunity in Karen as the Karen BGF continues to operate massive scam cities

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

Following the money: Thai authorities advance initiative to address the laundering of illicit funds generated by online scams through cryptocurrency exchanges; such exchanges have proliferated across the region, and are key to the pig-butchering scams. https://t.co/DH3jTHByjb

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

Myanmar’s scam economy continues to expand: on 4/23, 920 additional individuals repatriated to China, including from Mong Hsu, a town under influence of the Shan State Army North, a close ally of the United Wa State Army. Locations increasingly inland — 300+ miles from Tachileik

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

Meanwhile, after initially canceling Water Festival celebrations, the holiday is still celebrated in Shwe Kokko, with a large signboard reading “never give up SKK” and a renewed ad campaign for the main SKK KTV club.

[Jason Tower @Jason_Tower79]

Criminal victory in Myawaddy? Any progress eradicating scam centers on the Myanmar-Thai border has halted as new scam centers emerge, and as the Yatai IHG brings a new “shooting range” online on 4/12 showing off heavily armed security forces; meanwhile ads for scam jobs pick up