Gong Nanmin (second left in the first row)
goes on trial at the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, January
23, 2008. [Photo: xkb.com.cn]
Twelve members of a notorious crime gang went on trial yesterday
in Guangzhou, the Guangdong provincial capital.
Reading aloud from an 11-page indictment, the prosecution
accused Deng Weibo and Gong Nanmin, the two leaders of the gang,
and their cohorts of organizing secret societies, illegally
producing, owning and trading weapons, gathering to engage in
fights, injuring and blackmailing people and other serious crimes
between the second half of 2004 and the first half of last
year.
After an investigation lasting more than six months, police
finally busted the gang on May 21 last year.
Sixteen gang members were arrested in police raids in the
Haizhu, Liwan districts of Guangzhou and its Conghua suburb.
Police also destroyed a secret gun-making facility in the city
where they found 27 replica pistols and other part-finished
weapons, 558 bullets, various tools and equipment and a radio
transmitter.
It was the largest weapon production and trafficking case ever
cracked in the province.
Police said Deng and Gong first got involved in organized crime
in the second half of 2004 when they operated a protection racket
to monopolize the meat and vegetable bazaar in the Lijiao township
of Haizhu district.
In December 2004, they converted a former mold factory in the
Liwan district into an illegal gun-making facility.
The pair even required their gang members to wear uniforms,
sport the same hairstyle and carry walkie-talkies, police said.
At the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court yesterday, Deng and
Gong denied all charges.
A court official declined to comment on the case.
A verdict has yet to be reached.
Chen Wenda, a lawyer from Guangzhou, said he expected the court
to hand down heavy punishments as a deterrent to others.
"Organizing secret societies, illegally producing, trafficking
and trading weapons, and injuring and blackmailing people are all
serious crimes," he said.
(China Daily January 24, 2008)
