Prosecutors in?Jilin Province have ratified the arrest of Wang Yufan, vice director of the Public Security Bureau in Tonghua City, for involvement in organized crime.

Fourteen accomplices were also arrested, Hunan-based rednet.cn reported today. They face charges of gambling, drug trading, kidnapping and illegal possession of firearms.

Among the accomplices is the director of the Public Security Bureau in Tonghua County.

The report said the gang recruited more than 20 unemployed thugs to seize property, occupy mining plants and extort from traders.

The report did not detail the charges or how much money was involved.

The 47-year-old Wang Yufan became a policeman in 1982 and was promoted to be the vice director of the Public Security Bureau in Tonghua City in 1998.

He was nominated as an excellent civil servant, an excellent communist and advanced worker several times. He was awarded a second-class merit and a third-class merit in 1996.

The Ministry of Public Security began to receive information about Wang's crimes from the beginning of this year. The Discipline Inspection Commission and police began to investigate him and detained him in June.

(Shanghai Daily July 3, 2009)