Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

Luo Pinggui doesn't usually show his face directly; he only comes to reconcile accounts and collect money at the end of the month.

He has a rental house in the east of Nghe An City and also keeps a mistress.

Jiang Ruolan ordered Lu Zheng to immediately take control of Luo Pinggui.

When Lu Zheng and his men arrived at the rented house in the east of the city, Luo Pinggui was carrying a travel bag as he came out of the building. Upon seeing the police, he turned and ran back upstairs.

Chen Mo circled up the stairs from the other side and intercepted him at the corner on the fifth floor.

Luo Pinggui, panting heavily, said:

"I knew something bad was going to happen. I just knew it."

Lu Zheng handcuffed him and took him back to the station.

During the interrogation, Luo Pinggui admitted that he had led a begging team in another province many years ago. Later, he moved to Yi'an and gathered Huang Deming and others to lure many people from remote mountainous areas of Yunnan and Guizhou and rural areas within the province under the guise of "recruiting workers through intermediaries".

For the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled, they were arranged to beg on the streets; for the younger and healthier ones, they were sent to construction sites to do hard labor, and he collected their wages on their behalf.

Chen Mo asked him why these people didn't run away.

Luo Pinggui said that they were illiterate, had no cell phones, no ID cards, and no money. They didn't know their way around if they went out.

Some elderly people are genuinely ill and lack the strength to run.

He spoke calmly, as if he were discussing a business deal.

Jiang Ruolan, who was listening nearby, suddenly asked:

"How much money do you give to people who are forced to beg?"

Luo Pinggui paused for a moment, then said:

"They provide food and lodging. They'll give you a few dollars occasionally."

Jiang Ruolan closed the notebook, turned around and said to Lu Zheng:

"This is fucking treating people like livestock."

The case was ultimately transferred for prosecution on charges including organizing disabled and elderly people to beg and forced labor.

Thirteen of those rescued were minors, all of whom have been properly resettled by the civil affairs department.

The Yian Municipal Committee of Political and Legal Affairs organized a special operation to investigate and assist homeless and begging people throughout the city, and carried out a comprehensive inspection of key areas such as bridge holes, culverts, and abandoned construction sites.

Jiang Ruolan said at the summary meeting:

"Some people run criminal businesses, relying on knives and clubs. They rely on treating people like less than human beings. We must be even more resolute than they are in the face of such crimes."

A few days later, Chen Mo visited Old Man Wen at the rescue station.

Old Man Wen had changed into clean clothes and was sitting by the flower bed in the yard, basking in the sun.

When he saw Chen Mo arrive, he grinned, revealing his few remaining teeth.

He said the people at the shelter had already contacted his nephew back home and would send him back in a few days.

Chen Mo took out a bag of biscuits and two bottles of water from his bag and placed them next to him.

Old Man Wen waved his hand and said that everything was available here, so there was no need to send him off.

He suddenly asked:

"Officer Chen, those people who are forcing us out, are they really not going to get out?"

Chen Mo said:

"We can't get out."

Old Man Wen nodded, gazing at the small patch of blue sky above the courtyard, and murmured:

"It's good to be able to go back. It's good to be able to go back."

Chen Mo stood at the entrance of the rescue station for a while, watching as Old Man Wen and several other elderly people were called away to eat, before turning and leaving.

Outside, the sunlight was blindingly bright, making the entire road shine...

By June, Ngam was already as hot as a steamer.

The locust blossoms have all fallen, the sycamore leaves block out the sky, and the cicadas sing incessantly from morning till night.

The air conditioner in the municipal bureau office had been in service for ten years and was blowing out a musty, sour smell. Jiang Ruolan had the logistics department come to repair it twice, and finally she simply had someone remove the filter and wash it before it was barely habitable.

Chen Mo and Zhao Rui returned from investigating a case outside, their backs soaked as if they had been pulled out of a river.

Lu Zheng pointed the fan at the door, and the air was filled with the smell of tar and sweat.

That evening, Chen Mo was returning to the Municipal Bureau from the east of the city when he passed by Dayang Village and saw a group of people gathered at the village entrance.

He parked his car on the side of the road, squeezed in, and saw several people wearing "gas company" uniforms had set up a table on the side of the road, with several rusty iron pipes on it. They were shouting from a loudspeaker, "Replacing aging gas pipes, the government will subsidize part of the cost, and residents will raise the rest themselves. If you don't replace them today, the gas will be cut off tomorrow."

An old man was taking money out of his pocket and counting out more than 800 yuan, as if he were counting a lot of small bills he had saved up for a long time.

Chen Mo squeezed in, saying he was from the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and asked to see his work permit and construction documents.

A fat man at the table, all smiles, said the documents were in the car.

Chen Mo wanted to go with him, but the man hesitated for a few steps, then suddenly cursed "Mind your own business," jumped into the bread truck, started the engine, and drove off.

Chen Mo slapped his thigh and shouted, "Don't run!" He took two steps after the car, but the taillights had already disappeared around the alley entrance.

He ran back to the village committee and asked the village officials to use the loudspeaker to tell people to stop paying money.

The next day, an elderly man in his seventies, accompanied by his son, came to the Chengdong Police Station and placed the receipt for the two thousand yuan he had just spent and several iron pipes on the table.

His son said that these people knew every household inside and out, including which elderly person lived alone and which person's son was not at home.

These people are not only scammers, but they have also become part of a "system".

The old man sighed and said:

"They said it was a government subsidy, but I was worried the pipes were old and might leak."

After listening to Chen Mo's report, Lu Zheng slammed his hand on the table:

"Government subsidies and pipe replacements are all scams. Replacing aging pipes is done by legitimate companies using proper procedures. How could they possibly set up a table at the village entrance and start charging money? These people are no different from organized crime; they're wolves in sheep's clothing."

Jiang Ruolan asked Zhao Rui to investigate the identities of these people.

By retrieving surveillance footage from several sections of the village, Zhao Rui reconstructed the van's escape route and discovered that the van departed daily from a place called "Gas Safety Equipment Service Center" in the north of the city. There were three or four people on the van, wearing uniform blue work clothes and "Gas Safety" badges, but without any official gas company logo.

The registered owner of this "Gas Safety Equipment Service Center" is Tong Baohua, who has a criminal record for fraud. He doesn't usually show his face directly, but he has several "business teams" under him, which are distributed in various villages on the outskirts of Yi'an.

Jiang Ruolan said that this case needs to be handled quickly.

During the peak gas consumption season in summer, residents are particularly sensitive to gas safety. Those who commit crimes at this critical time are simply using the public's anxiety as a cash cow.

She instructed Lu Zheng to work with market regulators and legitimate gas companies to immediately conduct a comprehensive investigation of all villages and communities in the north, east, and south of the city, and to take immediate control of any suspicious individuals or stalls found.

Meanwhile, Chen Mo led a group to stake out the "Gas Safety Equipment Service Center" to see how many downstream customers were still there.

Chen Mo spent three days observing the situation and discovered that every morning around 5 a.m., a van would go out from this "service center" and return around 7 or 8 p.m. The driver would hand over the collected cash to a man called "Brother Cai".

This "Brother Cai" is Tong Baohua's brother-in-law, surnamed Chai, named Chai Wang.

..........