Former infantryman confounds compound bosses with military skills, flees over mountains finally making safety of Chinese embassy
3-MIN READ3-MINFran Luin BeijingPublished: 9:00am, 5 May 2026An ex-Chinese soldier has told how he escaped a Myanmar scam hub after scaling a wall, applying cow dung to mask his scent and subduing an armed guard.
Yang Lei, from northeastern China, shared the thrilling story of his escape after he arrived safely back in China.
Yang said he led a tour group of 10 people to Thailand, near the Thai-Myanmar border, in mid-March.
The local tour guide he hired did not have a legal residence permit and tried to bypass border control, leading the group to bump into people linked to Myanmar scam hubs.
There, all the group’s 11 members, including the local guide, were sold to a snakehead at 20,000 USDT per person, which is a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar.
The snakehead then sold them to a scam compound in Payathonzu town close to the Three Pagodas Pass.
