The crackdown on organised crime gangs in Chongqing municipality, which has already brought down dozens of senior officials and businessmen, was moving to a “sensitive stage” with more high-ranking officials and others being targeted, the government-run Guangzhou Daily reported yesterday.
The municipality, home to 30 million people, had been plagued by organised crime for years until new Communist Party chief Bo Xilai launched the crackdown two months ago.
It has netted more than 1,500 suspects so far, with the biggest catch being Chongqing Justice Bureau chief Wen Qiang, arrested on August 7. He has been stripped of his official post, but no formal charges have been filed.
The newspaper said the crackdown, which had wide public support, would intensify. It said the investigation had moved into the “sensitive stage” as the authorities prepared to take on bigger targets.
Chongqing authorities asked all 3,000 police officers working on triad-related cases to move to a secret, centralised location. They were all required to sign pledges of confidentiality, promising not to talk about their duties even to their families, the report said.
Since the crackdown started, at least 20 directorate-level police officials have been detained for their alleged connections with gangs. Chongqing police have broken up 104 organised gangs, with strikes on 67 gang bosses, three billionaires and hundreds of government officials.
A senior official in the local court and prosecution system told the Guangzhou Daily that though the police had not announced it, the freedom of movement of a large number of officers at the municipal and district levels had been restricted pending further investigation.
They included the head of the Economic Crime Investigation Department of the Public Security Bureau and several heads and deputy heads of district-level and county-level police bureaus.
The senior official, whom the newspaper did not identify, said: “Two weeks ago, directors of all district- and county-level police bureaus were asked by the authorities to attend an internal meeting. In the middle of one meeting, three high-ranking officials were summoned and immediately placed under detention for investigation.”
He said all the other directors at the meeting kept quiet out of fear.
The reaction by the public has been one of applause and support. Since June, Chongqing police have reported receiving 9,165 tip-offs from residents for their investigations, and said more than 80 per cent of the contacts gave their real names.
Huang Wei, head of the Chongqing Municipal Private Business Association, said more than half of his association’s 3,000 members had been harmed by gangs at some time. He said the association would raise 10 million yuan (HK$11.4 million) to set up a fund to assist the crackdown.
But Professor Wang Li of Southwest University, who specialises in the workings of Chongqing gangs, cautioned the public against thinking the crackdown would end organised crime there.
“One or two specific campaigns cannot wipe out the gangs,” he was quoted by the Guangzhou Daily as saying. “China has launched three nationwide crackdowns on triads since 2000. We found that the gangs’ organisation has also been developing and involving more industries.”
He said the most important measure to deter triad development was the prevention of government officers acting as protectors of gangs.
Mainland courts had convicted nearly 13,000 members of organised crime gangs since 2006, Xinhua reported yesterday.
It quoted Liao Jinrong, deputy director of the criminal investigation bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, as saying that police had detained more than 89,000 people suspected of organised crime during the campaign.
It also investigated 1,267 organised-crime cases and broke up more than 13,000 gangs, Xinhua said.
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Chongqing sets sights higher in war on gangs
Organised-crime blitz ‘to target senior officials’
He Huifeng
02 September 2009
The crackdown on organised crime gangs in Chongqing municipality, which has already brought down dozens of senior officials and businessmen, was moving to a “sensitive stage” with more high-ranking officials and others being targeted, the government-run Guangzhou Daily reported yesterday.
The municipality, home to 30 million people, had been plagued by organised crime for years until new Communist Party chief Bo Xilai launched the crackdown two months ago.
It has netted more than 1,500 suspects so far, with the biggest catch being Chongqing Justice Bureau chief Wen Qiang, arrested on August 7. He has been stripped of his official post, but no formal charges have been filed.
The newspaper said the crackdown, which had wide public support, would intensify. It said the investigation had moved into the “sensitive stage” as the authorities prepared to take on bigger targets.
Chongqing authorities asked all 3,000 police officers working on triad-related cases to move to a secret, centralised location. They were all required to sign pledges of confidentiality, promising not to talk about their duties even to their families, the report said.
Since the crackdown started, at least 20 directorate-level police officials have been detained for their alleged connections with gangs. Chongqing police have broken up 104 organised gangs, with strikes on 67 gang bosses, three billionaires and hundreds of government officials.
A senior official in the local court and prosecution system told the Guangzhou Daily that though the police had not announced it, the freedom of movement of a large number of officers at the municipal and district levels had been restricted pending further investigation.
They included the head of the Economic Crime Investigation Department of the Public Security Bureau and several heads and deputy heads of district-level and county-level police bureaus.
The senior official, whom the newspaper did not identify, said: “Two weeks ago, directors of all district- and county-level police bureaus were asked by the authorities to attend an internal meeting. In the middle of one meeting, three high-ranking officials were summoned and immediately placed under detention for investigation.”
He said all the other directors at the meeting kept quiet out of fear.
The reaction by the public has been one of applause and support. Since June, Chongqing police have reported receiving 9,165 tip-offs from residents for their investigations, and said more than 80 per cent of the contacts gave their real names.
Huang Wei, head of the Chongqing Municipal Private Business Association, said more than half of his association’s 3,000 members had been harmed by gangs at some time. He said the association would raise 10 million yuan (HK$11.4 million) to set up a fund to assist the crackdown.
But Professor Wang Li of Southwest University, who specialises in the workings of Chongqing gangs, cautioned the public against thinking the crackdown would end organised crime there.
“One or two specific campaigns cannot wipe out the gangs,” he was quoted by the Guangzhou Daily as saying. “China has launched three nationwide crackdowns on triads since 2000. We found that the gangs’ organisation has also been developing and involving more industries.”
He said the most important measure to deter triad development was the prevention of government officers acting as protectors of gangs.
Mainland courts had convicted nearly 13,000 members of organised crime gangs since 2006, Xinhua reported yesterday.
It quoted Liao Jinrong, deputy director of the criminal investigation bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, as saying that police had detained more than 89,000 people suspected of organised crime during the campaign.
It also investigated 1,267 organised-crime cases and broke up more than 13,000 gangs, Xinhua said.
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