Former policeman on trial for gang crimes
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A former policeman, who allegedly became an organized crime boss and amassed a fortune running a loanshark business, went on trial for murder and other crimes in southwest China Wednesday.
Yue Cun, 47, appeared at the Fifth Intermediate People's Court in Chongqing Municipality with 39 other people accused of belonging to his alleged organized crime gang.
Yue, the former director of Nanbin Road police station in the city's Nan'an District, had served as a police officer from 1996 to 2004, said an official with the court.
He became a millionaire as chairman of Yinde Company with more than 10 branch offices after he retired from the police in July 2004, the official said.
Yue is alleged to have organized his company and gang according to the management practices he learnt in the police station, the official said.
He faces 13 charges, including organizing, leading and participating in a criminal organization, bribery, murder, intentional injury, kidnapping, extortion, illegal detention, illegal business operations, trespass, organizing an illegal assembly, disrupting the peace, and illegally buying, selling and possessing narcotics and firearms.
The charges covered his time as a serving police officer and later.
Yue's alleged illegal businesses of usury, private investigation of extramarital affairs and debt collection with violence earned him 200 million yuan (29 million U.S. dollars), the official said.
The former policeman began his business in 1996 by running a cinema, where he hired loafers as "security guards." The so-called security guards began to collect protection fees from neighboring night bars in 1998 and were engaged in two gang fights in 1999, which left two people dead.
Yue also opened the Bangde Detective Agency, providing services of debt collection and investigation of extramarital affairs.
The agency bribed police and communication industry employees to obtain people's private information of residences, cars and phone calls. It conducted illegal practices of tracking, eavesdropping and taking pictures with candid cameras.
It was also paid by real estate companies to harass and threaten residents who were reluctant to move from their homes and make way for real estate projects.
The trial would continue for 10 days, the court official said.
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