Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

Lu Zheng tossed a cigarette over and said:

"Cut it open, everyone have a bite. It's cool tonight, let's consider this a closing chapter for this case."

Jiang Ruolan walked over, and Chen Mo quickly handed her the largest piece of watermelon.

She took it and took a bite; it was very sweet.

A night breeze carried a faint, pungent odor from the oil depot, but it had mostly dissipated.

A few stars peeked through the tops of the sycamore trees, twinkling sparsely.

She looked up and said:

"I have things to do tomorrow, so don't stay up too late."

Lu Zheng said:

"Understood, Director Jiang."

The crowd dispersed, laughing and joking, and the courtyard gradually quieted down, save for the persistent chirping of summer insects deep within...

In early July, Yi'an entered the most unbearable period of the year, the dog days of summer.

During the day, the sun is so scorching it can bake a person's skin off, and at night the heat lingers, like a giant steamer hanging over the city.

The police officers at the grassroots level deal with a wide variety of cases every day, but a series of requests for help recently received by the Chengbei Branch have brought about a significant change. This change began with a woman's weak and hesitant voice.

My husband has been detained.

Her voice trembled on the phone, as if she was afraid of being overheard.

"He said he went out gambling for one night, lost money, and they wouldn't let him leave or let us pick him up. I said I was going to call the police, and they said, 'Go ahead and call the police. If you do, your man might be floating in some river tonight.' I only have this one phone number, I'm begging you..."

The dispatcher from the Chengbei branch listened carefully and asked for her husband's name and the last place he was seen.

Following that call, two more family members called the police over two consecutive days, with almost identical circumstances.

After initial investigation, the Chengbei Branch discovered that illegal detention cases in its jurisdiction had been increasing covertly over the past few months, but had not been filed previously because the victims were afraid to speak out or cooperate.

Deputy Director Liu Guobin reported the matter to the Municipal Bureau.

Lu Zheng couldn't sit still after hearing this, and said:

"The underground casinos have sprung up again, and they're even bringing in people to pressure them for debts."

Jiang Ruolan carefully reviewed the three police reports, and finally asked:

"All three families mentioned a place called 'Qingfeng Teahouse'?"

Lu Zheng said:

"Qingfeng Teahouse is located in Liuxiang, north of the city. From the outside, it looks like a place for drinking tea and playing cards. The storefront is not big, but there is a hidden gem behind it. I checked, and the property is registered under the name of a man named Zheng Shibiao in the north of the city."

Zheng Shibiao, 42 years old, has a prior conviction for operating a casino and was sentenced to one year in prison in 2015. He went into hiding after the Fengmao era ended, but has become active again in the last two years.

However, this time he operated more discreetly. The teahouse, card room, and billiards hall were all registered separately, but all were run by his people. The teahouse only served acquaintances, and someone downstairs would swipe a card to let them in.

The gambling dens were located in the back hall on the second floor and on the basement level, offering games like baccarat, 28, and Texas Hold'em. The commission was extremely high, and those who lost heavily could "borrow chips" from the den—essentially loan sharks—with interest rates multiplying several times over in one night. If they couldn't repay, they would be detained.

The person is being held in a basement in a residential area in the north of the city. Unless the family pays ransom, the person won't be released.

Chen Mo was soon sent to conduct an undercover investigation in the Liuxiang area.

He pretended to be a young man running a small business in the north of the city, and spent three nights in a row wandering between various billiard halls and card rooms.

Around 11 p.m. on the third night, he noticed a young man with a backpack coming out of the back door of Qingfeng Teahouse and walking quickly along the alley, looking flustered.

Chen Mo followed and saw the young man go into a public toilet. When he came out, he threw a black plastic bag into a roadside trash can.

Chen Mo didn't disturb him. After he left, he opened the trash can and found the plastic bag full of shredded paper, a lighter, and several playing cards torn in half.

Scroll down further, and you'll find a broken plastic sign with "Signing Code 5000" written on it in blue pen.

Chen Mo handed these things to Lu Zheng.

After reading it, Lu Zheng said it was very similar to the practices of an underground casino that had been shut down three years ago, but it was more cautious.

Back then, they used accounting slips and loan slips, but now they've switched to using "tickets" and "signatures".

The so-called "signature chips" are chips made by the venue itself. If you borrow chips, you have to sign a handwritten IOU, and then tie the chips and the IOU together with a nylon rope for a photo.

Once the person leaves, the photos on their phone become evidence, so those who were detained don't dare to call the police because their names and ID numbers are clearly written on the IOU.

Jiang Ruolan instructed Lu Zheng and Zhao Rui to go through all the properties under Zheng Shibiao's name and all the people associated with him, in order to find out where they were hiding.

At the same time, Chen Mo was asked to try to contact a young man who had already "lost his mind" in the north of the city, to see if he could take the opportunity to sneak in.

This young man, named He Xiaohao, is 22 years old and works as a spray painter at a car repair shop in the north of the city. He posted on a local forum criticizing Qingfeng Teahouse, saying that he lost half a year's salary in one night and still owed 30,000 yuan.

Chen Mo went to great lengths to contact him. He Xiaohao was initially very wary, but after Chen Mo showed him his police ID, he finally opened up and said that there were lookouts in the teahouse, and the row of small shops selling cigarettes and alcohol at the entrance were their informants.

Customers must announce "introduced by Brother Li" upon entering, then enter through a hidden door behind the teahouse counter, pass through two soundproof doors, and finally arrive at the gambling hall.

The gambling den changed locations every day, sometimes in the basement of a teahouse, sometimes in the backyard of a car wash in the north of the city.

He Xiaohao said that as soon as you enter that place, someone will pour you tea and offer you cigarettes. If you lose money, they will comfort you and say, "It's easy to win back your losses, I'll take you there."

That's how he got deeper and deeper into it.

Based on He Xiaohao's confession, Lu Zheng deduced that their gambling times were not fixed, and the locations were sometimes temporary and sometimes fixed.

The term "temporary" refers to renting an abandoned factory or closed restaurant, setting up a few tables temporarily, and then leaving after gambling.

Zheng Shibiao's casino management team consisted of about seven or eight people, with a very detailed division of labor, including those who watched the games, solicited customers, lent money, and managed accounts.

Chen Mo spent another day staking out the small tobacco and alcohol shops in Liuxiang, confirming that the owners of two of the shops were related to Zheng Shibiao and were essentially undercover agents in the entire chain.

Jiang Ruolan decided to organize a raid, but she couldn't just arrest the gamblers; she had to bring out the organizers and the victims as well.

She had Lu Zheng contact the families of the detained individuals and work on their mindset.

One of the detained individuals was named Ding Liquan, and his wife, surnamed Song, was the first woman to call the police.

Lu Zheng told her not to make a fuss for now and to stay in touch.

After three days of surveillance, the task force finally got the chance for Zheng Shibiao to come to the scene in person to collect the debt.

...............