A Chinese mastermind linked to a huge scam operation in Myanmar has been extradited from Thailand.

She Zhijiang, 43, was handed over to Chinese authorities at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport serving Bangkok on Wednesday.

Photos show the businessman, who also holds a Cambodian passport, being frogmarched from the airport police station while flanked by masked and armoured officers.

The suspected gambling kingpin had reportedly been in hiding for more than a decade before he was arrested by Thai police in August 2022 on an Interpol red notice.

Beijing has accused him of running some 200 illegal casino websites based in fraud hub-ridden Myanmar, causing financial losses exceeding 150 million yuan (16 million GBP).

A Thai court ordered his extradition last year, with an appeals court upholding the decision on Monday.

Police Lieutenant General Jirabhop Bhuridej, assistant national police chief, said: 'The Chinese have asked for this suspect, which is a high priority for China.'

She reportedly headed a lucrative gambling complex, which included a 15 billion USD casino, in Shwe Kokko along the Thai-Myanmar border. Washington called the village 'a resort city custom-built for gambling, drug trafficking, prostitution, and scams targeting people around the world.'

She will face trial for allegedly operating illegal gambling websites as China steps up crackdowns on scam compounds in lawless Myanmar and neighbouring Cambodia, amid international pressure from developed countries.

Last week, a Shenzhen court sentenced five people to death for being involved in a violent scam gang in Myanmar's Kokang region.

Border areas between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia have become hubs for online fraud since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The United Nations reports that billions of dollars have been generated from the trafficking of hundreds of thousands of people forced to work in these compounds.