How a Young Mayor Turned Her Town Into a Hub for 'Pig Butchering' Scammers

WSJ got rare access to a criminal enclave in the Philippines from which Chinese gangs targeted people around the world, including Americans

- Feliz Solomon & Patricia Kowsmann

Hundreds of law-enforcement agents burst into a large walled enclave in the middle of this town 60 miles northwest of Manila. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary cluster of buildings—shops, offices, homes—but in fact, it was a crime den from which Chinese gangs ran scams called pig butchering, swindling Americans and others around the world out of millions of dollars.

The police hadn't warned anyone in local government, suspecting that most of them were in cahoots with the criminals. What they didn't know was that the town's popular young mayor, Alice Guo, was a key architect of the brazen enterprise. Investigations later showed how she charmed her way to wealth and power and used that to open up her town of 78,000 people to thugs and thieves.

Philippine investigators say Guo, who they believe is 34 years old, owned the land on which the scam den was built, co-founded the firm that managed it and was complicit in the illegal activity it hosted. With her explicit support, they say, gangsters set up operations there for thousands of scammers to ensnare victims online.

The fraud is called pig butchering because scammers "fatten" up their targets by entangling them in romantic relationships online, convince them to invest in bogus financial schemes, then "butcher" them by disappearing with their money. U.S. officials say the scams often target elderly American citizens, and are difficult to monitor and trace.

The March raid set off a dizzying spiral of events that led Guo to flee the Philippines. A weekslong multinational manhunt ensued, ending with a late-night bust in September when Guo was found hiding behind a door in an apartment near the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Video shows her asking for permission to change out of her pink pajamas before police took her away.

She is now in jail awaiting trial on half a dozen charges, including human trafficking and corruption, and is being investigated in more crimes.