China has executed 11 members of a notorious Myanmar mafia family that was infamous for duping victims in fake online romances. 

The Ming crime family was sentenced to death in September by a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, with the same court also carrying out the executions on Thursday. 

Residents in the UK and the US have fallen victim to similar, sophisticated schemes, after being lured into romantic relationships that resulted in the loss of large amounts of cash. 

The clan members were executed for crimes including 'intentional homicide, intentional injury, unlawful detention, fraud and casino establishment', according to news agency Xinhua. 

The death sentences were approved by the Supreme People's Court in Beijing, which found that the evidence produced of crimes committed since 2015 was 'conclusive and sufficient'.

The 'Ming family criminal group' had contributed to the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens and injuries to 'many others', according to local media. 

'The criminals' close relatives were allowed to meet with them before the execution,' Xinhua added. 

Ming Xuechang, the head of the clan who allegedly took his own life in 2023 to avoid capture, ran one of the most infamous of Laukkaing's scam centres, Crouching Tiger Villa. 

Their empire of crime came crashing down in 2023 after they were detained and handed over to Chinese authorities by ethnic militias that had taken power in the town of Laukkaing amid rising conflicts with Myanmar's army. 

Under Chinese law, criminals sentenced to death are executed either by firing squad or lethal injection. 

As part of its own effort to combat online fraud, the UK government last October sanctioned a different network that also operates scam centres in Southeast Asia, and has several assets in London.

The leader of that group, Chen Zhi, and his web of enablers, had incorporated their businesses in the British Virgin Islands and invested in the London property market, acquiring assets including a £12 million mansion on Avenue Road in north London, a £100 million office building on Fenchurch Street in the City of London, and seventeen flats on New Oxford Street and in Nine Elms in south London.

All of the businesses and properties were frozen, as part of the government's attempt to clampdown on scam centres which trick victims across the world out of substantial sums of money and torture their trafficked workers.