The Family That Had Its Own Army: Inside the Wei Crime Group’s 122 Billion Yuan Empire

On October 13, 2026, the Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court and the Nan’an People’s Court in Fujian Province delivered first-instance judgments in the Wei family criminal group cases. Wei Huairen, Chen Dawei, and Liao Jingfang received death sentences. Wei Qingtao, Kang Min, and Xiong Hengxing received life imprisonment. Su Hongxiang, Deng Zida, Chen Longjiang, and 52 others, 55 defendants total, received fixed-term sentences from 24 years to 3 years and 3 months.

61 defendants. 7 charges. More than 12.2 billion yuan in gambling and fraud. Four Chinese citizens dead.

This is the third criminal group among northern Myanmar’s four major families to face trial in China. The Ming family went first. The Bai family followed. Now the Wei family.

I. The Border Defense Battalion

The Wei family differs from the Ming and Bai families in one crucial way.

The Ming family’s armed force was private. It was funded and recruited by the family. The Bai family used “legitimate businesses” as cover and pooled money to buy guns and hire guards for its fraud compounds. The Wei family had something else: a border defense battalion authorized by the Myanmar state, with an official establishment and formal registration.

Wei Huairen served as chairman of the Border Defense Force Supervision Committee, appointed by the Myanmar government. In his statement, he said: “I was appointed by the Myanmar government as chairman of the Border Defense Force Supervision Committee. Then I appointed my second brother’s son Wei Qinghai and my son Wei Qingsong as members of the Border Defense Force Supervision Committee. In Kokang, I was the highest commander of the border defense force.”

He does not explain motive. He does not need to. “I appointed,” “my son,” “my second brother’s son.” The appointment power sat in his hands. The battalion served his family.

Wei Huairen also groomed his nephew Chen Dawei as the family’s military successor. Before his arrest, Chen Dawei controlled the local border defense armed force. A state instrument became a family army. The battalion’s official registration became the Wei family’s legal cover.

Around 2017, the Wei family moved into telecom fraud. It built 14 large fraud compounds in Laukkai, Kokang. It brought in “financiers” to move into the compounds and take shares in fraud dens. The Wei family created a model of armed, violent control over fraud compounds. Other families copied it.

Over five years, the group’s fraud proceeds reached nearly 6 billion yuan. Casino turnover reached nearly 10 billion yuan. Gambling and fraud funds totaled more than 12.2 billion yuan.

Wei Huairen mentioned one more detail in his statement. The purchase price of a Chinese employee rose from 20,000 yuan to more than 300,000 yuan. Chinese people inside the compounds who wanted to go home had to pay hundreds of thousands of yuan in ransom. “Some people found me and asked me to step in to release them. Of course, I also made some money from this.”

Look at the order: “found me,” “asked me to step in,” “of course, I also made some money.” The phrase “of course” carries his entire understanding of his role.

II. The Legal Framework

On June 26, 2024, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Cross-Border Telecom and Online Fraud and Other Criminal Cases.

One provision states: A person who manages and controls a criminal gang in committing cross-border telecom and online fraud, extortion, and other crimes by providing a criminal venue, logistical support, armed protection, personnel management, and other means, and who takes a share of profits or charges related fees, and where there are clear organizers and leaders with basically fixed core members, meets the conditions in Paragraph 2, Article 26 of the Criminal Law. That person shall be identified as part of a criminal group.

The Wei family provided armed protection and compound venues. “Financiers” moved in to carry out fraud. The group took a share. Organizers and core members were clearly ranked.

The court found Wei Huairen, Wei Qingtao, and others guilty of seven charges, including intentional homicide and fraud.

Wei Huairen may not have personally killed anyone. His death sentence did not require him to. Paragraph 3, Article 26 of the Criminal Law says a principal who organizes and leads a criminal group is punished for all crimes committed by the group. Wei Huairen’s armed protection system provided the conditions and safeguards for the killings. The group, together with fraud gangs in the compounds, killed Chinese citizens who refused to submit to management. Two Chinese citizens died. That account was laid at the principal’s feet.

Gambling and fraud funds exceeded 12.2 billion yuan. The fraud amount exceeded 2.4 billion yuan. The threshold for an “especially huge amount” in fraud is 500,000 yuan. 2.4 billion is 4,800 times that threshold. The maximum statutory penalty for fraud is life imprisonment, not death.

Death came from intentional homicide.

The Wei family criminal group, together with fraud gangs in the compounds, killed Chinese citizens who refused to submit to management. Two Chinese citizens died. Chen Dawei used armed force to kill at will. Two more Chinese citizens died. Four Chinese citizens dead in total.

Intentional homicide carries a maximum statutory penalty of death. Combined punishment for several crimes.

III. The Sacrificial Altar

CCTV documentary disclosed two murders by Chen Dawei.

In the first, Chen Dawei wanted to become sworn brothers with a financier in the compound. He decided the ceremony needed a “sense of ritual.” That ritual was killing someone as a sacrifice to heaven.

A special task force police officer asked: “Why kill someone as a sacrifice to heaven for sworn brotherhood?”

Chen Dawei answered: “To swear a blood oath. It’s more distinctive.”

The officer pressed: “How did you choose the target?”

Chen Dawei said: “I told my men to find a stranger. Anywhere.”

The stranger was a Chinese citizen in disciplinary confinement for refusing to obey the compound’s management. He was pushed from the confinement room onto the “sacrificial altar” and shot.

Afterward, Chen Dawei spoke of it calmly: “I felt nothing.”

In the second, Chen Dawei had a dispute with a financier from another family’s compound. He held one of the other side’s men for a month, then ordered him shot.

Cross-border evidence collection found the victim’s remains in a kneeling position, face down, hands bound behind the back, with seven bullet holes in the skull.

Huang Yuanfeng, head of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Nan’an Public Security Bureau in Quanzhou, Fujian, described the scene: “The horror of that scene was indescribable. He was simply shot to death by a fusillade.”

Seven bullet holes. Kneeling. Face down. Hands bound behind the back.

No adjectives needed.

After being brought to justice, Chen Dawei said: “Just let your Chinese law sanction me.”

The documentary did not show his expression in close-up. He was not confessing guilt.

IV. Gradations

Of the 61 defendants, 3 received death sentences, 3 received life imprisonment, and 55 received fixed-term sentences from 24 years to 3 years and 3 months.

Four deaths and more than 12.2 billion yuan in gambling and fraud produced three death sentences, not 61.

Compare the Ming family case. The Ming family criminal group was involved in more than 10 billion yuan in fraud and gambling. It caused more than 10 Chinese deaths. 11 people received immediate execution. Compare the Bai family case. More than 29 billion yuan in fraud and gambling. Six deaths. Bai Yingcang also trafficked and manufactured 11 tons of methamphetamine.

The Wei family case: four deaths, three death sentences.

The numbers differ because the circumstances differ: number of deaths, criminal methods, confession, return of illicit gains, and compensation. Article 3 of the Opinions provides leniency for those who voluntarily surrender, plead guilty and accept punishment, actively return illicit gains and compensate, and actively cooperate with the investigation. For those lured or coerced into crimes, the principle of leniency with severity applies.

Among the 55 fixed-term defendants, how many surrendered, how many pleaded guilty, and how many were lured or coerced? The judgment did not disclose each case. The range from 24 years to 3 years and 3 months shows the court made distinctions at the individual level.

Leniency with severity is not a slogan. It lands on each defendant’s facts.

V. 700 Days

Special task force police officers braved war risk in northern Myanmar three times to collect evidence across the border. They traveled to 28 provinces and more than 240 prefecture-level cities. Evidence collection took more than 700 days.

Since the Ministry of Public Security deployed the special operation against crimes involving Chinese citizens in northern Myanmar, more than 57,000 Chinese fraud suspects have been captured. In 2025, more than 7,600 Chinese fraud suspects were repatriated from Myawaddy, Myanmar.

All cases involving the four major families criminal groups in Kokang, northern Myanmar, have entered judicial proceedings.

Behind these numbers are the difficulties of cross-border evidence collection. Victims’ remains are in northern Myanmar. Witnesses are scattered across China. Crime scenes are abroad. Armed forces are in the hands of the other side. Every piece of evidence is one step in cross-border judicial cooperation.

Chen Dawei said, “Just let your Chinese law sanction me.” He thought Chinese law could not reach him.

Now the judgment has come down. Death.