Society

One-time policeman stands trial for leading gang

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-17 07:48

CHONGQING: The owner and staff of several pawnshops and detective agencies, including a former policeman, stood trial yesterday for allegedly leading or participating in a mafia-style gang in the southwestern municipality.

One-time policeman stands trial for leading gang

Relatives of the alleged victims of Yue Cun's gang show photos allegedly taken after attacks outside the No 5 Intermediate People's Court in Chongqing yesterday. [Xu Kangping]

The alleged 40-strong gang led by business owner Yue Cun faces 13 charges in Chongqing No 5 Intermediate People's Court, including murder, intentional injury of others, abduction, racketeering, trading and possession of ammunitions.

One-time policeman stands trial for leading gang

Prosecutors said 10 companies the gang established since 2001 conducted illicit activities ranging from loan sharking and violent collection of debts to investigation of individual's privacy - generating illegal gains amounting to 200 million yuan ($29 million) for the gang.

Moreover, members of the organization killed three people and seriously injured one in two brawls in February and April 1999, according to the indictment.

Yue, 47, then a policeman of Nanbinlu police station in the city's Nan'an district, actively helped the members hide from police after the crimes, the indictment said.

"The gang disrupted local financial and social order," said the prosecutor.

However, about 20 relatives of accused staff of the detective agencies told China Daily outside the courtroom that their kin were not gangsters but instead employees hired by the "officially registered companies", which regularly paid for the employees' pension fund.

"My husband found recruitment information about the company from a local newspaper. No one would dare apply for a place in a mafia organization," said a woman who did not want to give her or her husband's name for "fear of being implicated".

One of Yue's famous detective agencies, Bangde Business Information Consulting Firm - based on the Chinese name for James Bond - was set up in 2000.

But according to the indictment, "(the gang) resorted to unlawful means in business practice. It illegally tailed and took photos to obtain citizen's private information and forced entry into other's properties, which severely infringed citizens' privacy and rights."

To seek protection from senior officials for the gang, Yue had offered Chen Honggang, then head of the municipal traffic police division, 30,000 yuan and a fur coat worth 26,000 yuan between 1999 and 2008, the indictment said.

The trial is estimated to last 10 days.