Chinese, Russian Police Crack Cross-Border GangsChinese and Russian police forces in close cooperation have captured the major members of two criminal gangs suspected of committing 32 cases involving robbery, kidnapping and blackmail in the Russian Far East.The leaders of the two gangs, Zheng Renhao and Du Xiangu, both Chinese citizens, have been formally arrested by Chinese police, according to officials at the Public Security Bureau of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China. The officials said most of the gang members are farmers from Dongning County in the province, and that most of the cases are targeted at Chinese in Ussuriysk and other Russian cities across the border. The two gangs have close ties with secret societies in Russia, the officials said. Preliminary investigations by the police found that Zheng Renhao's gang has 17 members and is responsible for 21 cases, involving 26,000 U.S. dollars and 201 million rubles. In one of the cases, the gang kidnapped a victim at a hotel, tortured him, and extorted from him 15 million rubles. Du Xiangu's gang has 13 members, including his younger brother, cousin and brother-in-law. Equipped with pistols and gas guns, the gang was suspected of committing 11 cases mainly in the Russian city of Khabarovsk, and getting away with 122,000 yuan and a large amount of property. |
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