1,228 arrested in midnight raids as Chinese armed police seek to smash US$54 million pyramid scheme
Local government officials from southern city of Beihai join thousands of police officers in raids on 300 properties
More than 1,200 people have been arrested on suspicion of having links to a 360 million yuan (US$54.5 million) pyramid scheme in southern China, state media reported.
More than 2,100 armed police and local government officials took part in coordinated raids on 300 properties in 27 residential estates in the coastal city of Beihai in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, China News Service reported on Wednesday.
Wang Naixue, the city’s party secretary, was quoted as saying that he would not rest until all pyramid schemes, which disrupt the social order and ruin families, had been eradicated from Beihai.
The raids took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning, China National Radio reported, adding that several lead figures within the scheme were among those detained.
Of the 1,228 people arrested, the youngest were aged in their 20s and the oldest in their 80s, it said.