Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

After collecting the cash, Chai Wang would go to the "Limin Hardware Store" in the west of the city every two days to buy a batch of inferior iron pipes, plastic valves, and accessories with fake certificates of conformity.

After figuring out the pattern, Chen Mo notified Lu Zheng.

Lu Zheng immediately decided to close the net.

The arrest operation took place at 10 a.m., because Tong Baohua and Chai Wang were at the "center" checking accounts at that time.

Chen Mo first went in pretending to ask a question, confirmed that the person was there, and then waved his hand, and six plainclothes officers outside broke down the door at the same time.

Tong Baohua and Chai Wang were immediately subdued.

More than 30,000 yuan in cash, 17 fake work permits, and a batch of substandard pipes and valves were found at the scene.

The ledger records their "battle map"—more than twenty villages around Yi'an, which ones have been "sweeped", which ones haven't been visited yet, which ones need "secondary development", which elderly people are "easy to talk to", and which families "have young people" to avoid first.

Lu Zheng's face turned ashen when he saw these records.

He said that these people turned the fraud into an organized and premeditated "campaign," which seriously damaged the public's understanding of gas safety. How can people trust the real gas company when it comes to home inspections in the future?

Jiang Ruolan instructed Zhao Rui to preserve all these ledgers as evidence, and at the same time, to compile the names and contact information of these victims, and to notify them one by one by phone and by visiting them in person, telling them not to replace these counterfeit products, and that gas safety must be ensured by using genuine products.

Later, Chen Mo led technicians from a legitimate gas company to Dayang Village and several nearby villages to inspect the replaced pipe fittings from house to house.

An old man, upon hearing that the goods were counterfeit, was so angry that he threw the iron pipe in his yard, saying that these damned people had cheated him out of the money he had saved for three years.

Chen Mo squatted down to comfort him, saying that it was hard to say whether the money could be recovered, but the pipe had to be replaced, and safety came first.

The old man nodded and said:

"Now that you're here, I'm not afraid anymore."

Chen Mo said:

"Uncle, remember my phone number. No matter who comes to us in the future, call me first."

The old man said yes.

After thorough investigation, it was finally determined that since the end of last year, Tong Baohua's gang had been operating under the guise of "gas safety," moving around more than ten villages and communities in the north, east, and south of Yi'an City. They used methods such as "setting up stalls at fixed locations, door-to-door sales, fake inspections, and creating panic" to sell gas pipes and accessories of unknown origin to residents, with the amount involved reaching hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Tong Baohua was transferred for prosecution on charges of fraud and forgery of official documents and seals, while Chai Wang and others were dealt with according to law.

Jiang Ruolan said at the case closure meeting that although these types of cases may not seem as serious as murder cases, they cause many times more damage to the public's sense of security.

The public security organs should not only crack down on crimes, but also teach the public how to distinguish between genuine and fake information.

The municipal bureau subsequently printed and distributed "Gas Safety Fraud Prevention Cards" to community police officers and grid workers during door-to-door visits.

One evening a week later, Jiang Ruolan and Chen Mo went to Dayang Village for a follow-up visit.

The elderly man who had been cheated out of his money was cleaning the replaced fake iron pipes with a steel brush in his yard, preparing to sell them to a scrap collector.

Upon seeing this, Chen Mo quickly said, "Don't sell these pipes; keep them as evidence."

The old man was taken aback and said, "Hasn't the case already been closed?"

Chen Mo said that even if the case is closed, it should be kept in case it needs to be reviewed later.

The old man smiled and said okay, then tossed it in the corner.

Jiang Ruolan walked over, squatted down to look at the rusty pipes, and then looked up at the newly installed yellow gas hoses in the yard. Only then did she feel a little more at ease.

The old man kept rambling on and on, saying that now everyone in the village knows how to tell the real from the fake among those men in blue overalls.

Jiang Ruolan nodded and said:

"From now on, not only for gas, but for any door-to-door collection or inspection, if they can't produce a work permit and proper procedures, tell them to go to the village committee first."

The old man said:

"I understand. We can't let those wolves in overalls come back."

Hearing the phrase "wolf in work clothes," Jiang Ruolan felt a dull jolt in her heart.

As she stepped out of the courtyard, the sun was setting in the distance, casting a deep and warm hue over the entire village.

Chen Mo followed behind her and said:

"Director Jiang, there's a meeting tomorrow, so get some rest tonight."

Jiang Ruolan said:

"Okay. But let's go back to the station and finish revising this report first."

The two walked one after the other along the ridge, a cool breeze rustling through the tips of the rice stalks...

In late June, the heat in Yian was intense; at midday, the asphalt roads were so hot that the soles of shoes would soften from the heat.

When Lu Zheng and two police officers were visiting the area near the East Bus Station, they discovered several old oil tankers with "Chengyun Oil Products" signs moving in and out of an open space next to a residential area.

The open space was surrounded by corrugated steel sheets, and a sign at the entrance read "Internal parking lot, no entry without permission." However, private cars would occasionally drive out from there, their wheels and undercarriages soaking wet, and the air was filled with a strong, bitter smell of diesel fuel.

Residents living nearby said that the "parking lot" is quiet during the day, but becomes lively at night, with vehicles of all sizes lining up to squeeze in, and the cars that come out are all filled with gas.

Lu Zheng peered out of the window of a residential building in the distance for several nights and discovered that behind the corrugated steel fence was actually an illegal gas station. It had no business license, no fire-fighting facilities, only two modified sheet metal oil tanks and a few rusty homemade gas nozzles.

When he went back and told Jiang Ruolan, she immediately told him to call the city management, safety supervision and fire departments together.

At the meeting, the people from the Municipal Emergency Management Bureau said that they had wanted to investigate "Chengyun Oil Products" for a long time, but the other party was very cunning. Every time, before the law enforcement officers arrived, the oil tanker would drive away in advance, leaving the place empty.

Several times, after finally managing to block the scene, the other party was able to produce a filing document for an "internal self-use fuel storage point," claiming that it was not open to the public.

But so many cars were coming and going in the vicinity late at night, clearly selling oil, and the oil they were selling was of dubious origin, most likely smuggled in from other places as inferior diesel with seriously excessive sulfur content.

Jiang Ruolan instructed Lu Zheng and Zhao Rui to investigate two things: first, the source and transportation route of these substandard diesel fuels; and second, who was behind "Chengyun Oil Products".

The two groups split up, with Chen Mo following Zhao Rui.

Zhao Rui disguised himself as a long-distance truck driver in the north of the city, and in an old truck borrowed from a transportation company, he met up with an oil dealer near the logistics park in the north of the city.

The oil dealer, known as "Old Cai," was a small distributor for "Chengyun Oil Products."

Old Cai was very vigilant. The first two times they met, they only chatted and didn't talk about business. He kept saying, "The crackdown is strict now, it's not easy to do this kind of work."

Zhao Rui wasn't in a hurry. He treated him to a bowl of noodles at a roadside stall and then mentioned that he could save 1,000 yuan on gas by driving more than 4,000 kilometers round trip to Yunnan. He asked Zhao Rui if he knew of any cheap gas.

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