A crime-linked owner of a large casino and resort in Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle has resumed construction on a private airport in a bid to bring more tourists into his large resort and special economic zone, sources say.
Zhao Wei, chairman of the Dok Ngiew Kham Group and owner of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Bokeo’s Tonpheung district, has been tied to human trafficking, money laundering, and the illegal trade in drugs and wildlife products.
In 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department declared the Zhao Wei business network, including the Golden Triangle’s well-known Kings Romans Casino, a “transnational criminal organization” (TCO) and sanctioned Zhao and three other individuals and companies across Laos, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
Speaking to Radio Free Asia (RFA) a member of the Golden Triangle SEZ management team said the Dok Ngiew Kham Group and Kings Romans are now clearing land for a new airport after making payments in compensation to area landowners who had previously objected to the work.
“It seems that all landowners are happy with the compensation they’ve received, and are showing no objection to the land-clearing process,” the Dok Ngiew Kham official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The company is planning to complete the construction of the airport and to welcome more tourists in 2022,” he said.
A woman living in the Tonpheung district who lost her land to the project confirmed the work was going ahead and said she was happy with the payment she had received, adding, “At first, many of us were opposed to the construction plan, but now all of us have given up our resistance to the project and have accepted compensation.”
Airport may increase illegal activities
Other local residents were less happy with the project, though, with one Bokeo villager saying the new private airport is being built only to bring in large numbers of wealthy tourists and won’t benefit the local population.
“This airport isn’t needed, because we already has an airport in the town of Houayxay,” the resident said. “The Dok Ngiew Kham Group wants to build this airport just to serve the wealthy people who want to come gamble at the casino,” he said.
“Zhao Wei, the owner of the Kings Romans Casino, wants to build his own private airport in order to expand his business and serve his customers,” a villager in the town of Houayxay agreed. “We already have an airport here in Houayxay for the general public.”
But while the new airport will mostly help the casino, “it may also bring some benefit to the local people and economy by bringing more tourists into the area,” another local resident said.
Adosorn Semyam—a Thai expert on Laos at the Asia Studies Institute at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University—voiced concern that with the new airport being built to serve Chinese and not domestic customers, it may soon function as a new route for drug trafficking and other illegal activity.
“This SEZ is a very free and open zone with all kinds of entertainment for tourists, including prostitutes, drugs, and wildlife,” agreed one worker in the Golden Triangle, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his safety. “These things are available at all the entertainment venues,” he added.
Asked about the presence of illegal activity in the Golden Triangle SEZ in Bokeo and the Boten SEZ in Luang Namtha, also in the country’s north, an official in the Special Economic Zone Control Department of the Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment replied simply, “I can’t comment on that issue.”
In addition to concerns over crime, many in Laos worry about growing Chinese influence as a result of massive investment in hydropower dams, a high-speed railway, and other infrastructure projects under Beijing’s $1.3 trillion Belt and Road Initiative.
China is Laos’ largest foreign investor and aid provider, and its second-largest trade partner after Thailand.

Zhao Wei is a Chinese gangster and the founder of Hong Kong-registered company Kings Romans Group (formed in 2007), which owns the Kings Romans casino franchise. Zhao Wei is currently under sanctions by the United States Treasury Department for his involvement in laundering money and assisting in the storage and distribution of heroin, methamphetamine, and other narcotics for illicit networks, including the United Wa State Army which operates in Myanmar. Based in Laos within the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ), Zhao Wei is also reported to engage in human trafficking, bribery, wildlife trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crime. Much of this illicit activity is facilitated through the Kings Romans casino franchise located within the GTSEZ.
Born in Heilongjiang, China, Zhao Wei started out as a timber trader before moving into Macau in 1990s where he holds permanent residency and began investing on numerous casino establishments. In 2001, Zhao Wei moved to Mong La, Myanmar where he founded first casino franchise, Landun Entertainment. He established ties with National Democratic Alliance Army whose leader, Sai Leun financed the operations of the casino industry in Mong La. In 2005, China imposed a travel ban to Mong La following reports of officials gambling state funds. The travel ban led into shuttering of many casinos within the city.
Soon after the travel ban was imposed, Zhao was invited by government of Laos to invest in Bokeo Province. In 2007, Zhao negotiated and struck a 99-year lease with them to establish and operate the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, which was located in the same province. In early October 2020, a $50 million dollar investment to build a port in the Laotian town of Ban Mom, directly north of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, was made by Osiano Trading Sole Co., a partner or front company of Zhao Wei and his organization. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has raised concerns several times about Laos being used by organized crime to traffic drugs, precursor chemicals and other illicit commodities, and that the purchase of the Ban Mom port is a representation of organized crime infiltrating critical infrastructure in the region. The Ban Mom port is located in the remote stretches of Mekong River which has been confirmed as a smuggling route for trafficking drugs and precursor chemicals into and out of the Golden Triangle.
Zhao Wei is married to Chinese Australian Su Guiqin (born 1960). Alongside her husband, Su Guiqin runs the Kings Romans casino.

Several Chinese killed in shootout near Kings Romans casino in Laos
A notorious casino in Laos is at the center of a police investigation into a shootout that resulted in the deaths of four Chinese nationals.
Earlier this month, Lao police reported being called to the Kings Romans Casino in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone near the intersecting borders of Thailand and Myanmar. According to some accounts, the call came after three Chinese nationals entered the casino with a suitcase containing around RMB1m (US$143k) in cash.
According to some reports, the Chinese nationals brought the cash to make good on a gambling debt but some kind of argument ensued, resulting in their decision to flee with the cash, with other Chinese nationals in hot pursuit. A shootout occurred in which the three Chinese who fled the casino were killed by their pursuing countrymen, one of whom was subsequently shot and killed by police.
However, other reports claim that four Chinese nationals were killed and a fifth wounded in a rented house near the casino in an apparent robbery. The alleged robbers, a Chinese man and his wife, then fled the scene with stolen cash only to be cornered by police the following day, resulting in a shootout and the arrest of the wounded husband, while the wife reportedly escaped.
Whatever the truth, it’s par for the course for the Kings Romans venue, which last year was the site of a daring robbery in which a gang of robbers dressed as Chinese police relieved the property of around RMB3m.
Kings Romans is owned by Chinese national Zhao Wei, who US officials have accused of being the head of a ‘transnational criminal organization’ involved in trafficking everything from drugs to endangered wildlife to human beings. Zhao has dismissed the allegations as “malicious rumor-mongering.”
Like most casinos around the world, Kings Romans was shut down earlier this year to minimize COVID-19 transmission. The property was only just cleared to reopen several days before the shootings of the Chinese nationals.

Kings Romans Casino robbery ringleader busted in Thailand
Thailand authorities have arrested the suspected ringleader of a group who stuck up the Kings Romans Casino in Laos earlier this year.
On Monday, Thai media reported that immigration police in Samut Prakan province had arrested a Chinese national identified only as Ying who is suspected of leading a gang of 22 robbers who staged a daring heist at the Kings Romans in Laos earlier this year.
The crime was reportedly enabled by Ying dressing up as a Chinese policeman and convincing members of the casino security team to allow several other members of the gang to enter. Other gang members were already on the casino floor, pretending to be gamblers.
Once the gang was all inside, they forced the casino’s actual gamblers to fork over RMB3m (US$427k), while also making off with several smartphones and computers.
Ying reportedly entered Thailand legally in March but Thai immigration officials plan to revoke his visa so that Ying can be extradited to China to face prosecution.
It’s not clear why Ying is going back to China, since Kings Romans is based in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone near Laos’ borders with both Thailand and Myanmar, but not China. Clearly, Ying has a rap sheet in his home country that Beijing is determined to enforce.
News of Ying’s arrest came just days before the ministers of public security for both China and Laos announced a plan to enhance law enforcement cooperation between the two countries. Among the naughty behaviors the two parties want to crack down include “telecommunications fraud and online gambling.”
China may also seek to rein in shipments of illegal drugs coming into the country from Laos. In 2018, US officials named Zhao Wei, the co-owner of the Kings Romans Casino, as the head of a ‘transnational criminal organization’ responsible for distribution of heroin, methamphetamine and other illicit substances. Chinese officials have reportedly seized large drug shipments that were eventually traced back to the casino. Zhao Wei has denied the US allegations, calling them “malicious rumor-mongering.”
Laos doesn’t have many casinos, particularly since the government shut down gaming venues in its Boten region, which is close to the Chinese border. Beijing reportedly leaned on the Lao government to act after multiple reports of Chinese citizens being held for ransom because they couldn’t pay their gambling debts.
Besides the Kings Romans, the country’s biggest casino is likely Macau Legend Development’s Savan Legend Resorts in Savannakhet province, which may soon be facing additional financial obligations. In June, the Lao government announced that it would increase its “levy” on casinos from its current 35% to 50%. It’s unclear whether this levy referred to a tax rate or a flat fee.

TS you know golden triangle many of them were the remnant of KMT troops who retreated there after they lost the civil war right?

And Cambodia Casino is owned by a Malaysia from Jenjarum.

Born in Heilongjiang, China, Zhao Wei started out as a timber trader before moving into Macau in 1990s

Ying reportedly entered Thailand legally in March but Thai immigration officials plan to revoke his visa so that Ying can be extradited to China to face prosecution.
It’s not clear why Ying is going back to China, since Kings Romans is based in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone near Laos’ borders with both Thailand and Myanmar, but not China. Clearly, Ying has a rap sheet in his home country that Beijing is determined to enforce.

Not nagaworld the biggest operator in Cambodia?

Yes, and it is owned by Malaysian.

They have special agreement with Hunsen, no other casino can get nearer than 100km from Nagaworld.

Those is Shihanaukville are all dying now, because the Chyna government is forcing Hunsen to shut them down.

Lol. Radio Free Asia….

What’s next? Falunggong is real news and not a anti China cult?

if you're going to cambodia for holiday and you're not visiting the ruins?
you're doing it wrong already

u shouldn't be going cambodia for luxury travel and casinos...there are other countries for that...better/more suitable countries

told RFA means shit to me. Whataboutism my ass.

Anyone can tell anything to make propaganda.

But hey, do swallow propaganda if you like. Just don’t tell me it’s true or it is news.

Lol. The moment anything that comes from "China Uncensored" and "Radio Free Asia" or "Daily Mail" as far as I am concerned, they are all US propaganda.

If I put in sources from "CGTN" and "CCTV" saying shit about the US you will start whining "CCP propaganda".

Poison pen? Lol. I am just saying shit as it is. Truth pen more like.

Fact is, US and China are both now in a war - a propaganda war. RFA can be believed as much as shit can be eaten. Likewise one should be wise to treat whatever CGTN or CCTV says about the US.

So now, fuck this "Radio Free Asia" shit. Lies lies and more fucking lies.

Just like how Adrian Zenzs tells from fucking American think tank about Xinjiang, same how this article says about "gangster". Until today I have been looking for a single photo of mass graves in Xinjiang with hundreds of thousands of Uighurs getting "genocided" I got bupkis.

Radio Free Asia? Lol. Try again.

I am saying the moment there are "Radio Free Asia", "China Uncensored" and other US government or Falunggong or obviously anti China websites post any shit piece about China, I will stop reading after seeing those words.

Same thing with CCTV and CGTN about America.

Yeah. As far I am concerned, lies and propaganda. Not going to waste my time with that kinda shit. 

The day I swallow Western lies, deceit, propaganda are long over.

You know PRC didn't intervene Macau business operation right?

If they do, all Casinos in Macau has to be shut down. No Casino is allowed in mainland China.

I am providing fact. not argument

You know PRC didn't intervene Macau business operation right?

If they do, all Casinos in Macau has to be shut down. No Casino is allowed in mainland China.

I don't know what is your intention to show gangster who fled chyna and committing crime in golden triangle

Criminals is everywhere and you think those KMT troops' descendant are innocent? They were once the bigest opium cartel before the middle east took over. Now still fighting against the host country.

Are you trying to say there is no criminal is other countries?

apa kes, can share link?