A former housing and development official in a poverty-stricken county in Shanxi Province has been jailed for 19 years for corruption, taking bribes and other irregularities worth 24.62 million yuan (US$3.8 million).

Li Zhiqiang, former deputy head of the housing and urban-rural development bureau of Baode County in Xinzhou, was sentenced after more than a decade of crimes and bullying innocent residents and county officials who had opposed him, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

Li was notorious for acting more like a gangster than a public servant. Local people even compared him with Wen Qiang, a former top justice official in southwest Chongqing City who was executed last year for corruption, rape and other crimes. The saying: "Wen Qiang in Chongqing, Zhiqiang in Baode" was well known in the county.

Seeing a chance to make easy money through China's rising real estate market, Li made use of his power to embezzle state assets, take bribes and illegally auction land. He thrived as an infamous rich official in a county where local residents struggled to survive.

A court in Baode found Li took 4.36 million yuan in bribes from people he helped buy land at below market value. Li also cheated a rural credit cooperative out of 3.8 million yuan by using fake documents. His crimes also included gaining 1 million yuan from illegal auctions of local land to his affiliate companies.

He also made profits of 15.46 million yuan by illegally operating a business.

"If you don't obey me, you will be my enemy," was one of his infamous sayings. During Li's tenure as the deputy head of the housing and development bureau since 1995, he managed to drive away three bureau chiefs who were not prepared to "obey" him.

In 2005, for example, he drove out bureau chief Guo Yuxi by breaking his office windows, smearing excrement on the door handle and piling garbage up outside.

That same year, Li began to put together a team of more than 20 followers, including drug users and former criminals, to carry out his orders.

People's fear of the consequences of speaking out was said to be the main reason why Li managed to hold on to his post for more than a decade.