Police crack Mafia-style gang after reign of terror

POLICE claim to have smashed a Mafia-style gang which had been terrorising the industrial city of Jiamusi, in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, for several months.

A total of 65 alleged gangsters were formally arrested on July 24 following a massive police crackdown, the Heilongjiang Legal Daily reported. The announcement of the arrests led to a spontaneous celebration in which local residents cheered and let off firecrackers, it added.

Prior to the crackdown, the newspaper said the gang had ''run rampant'' throughout the town, extorting money, organising protection rackets, robbing cars and trains and monopolising the local pork market.

The paper said: ''This Mafia-style gang sent people to collect black taxes, demand black money and handle black business.

''They even set up a self-styled, underground public security bureau which indiscriminately executed innocent people, posing a very serious threat to public order.'' It was claimed police appeared powerless to intervene, allowing the gang to behave as if it were a law unto itself. Many observers alleged several senior public security officers had been bought off by the gangsters.

In a demonstration of its power, the gang organised a 150 vehicle procession through the city centre in May for gang boss, Han Jie, who was killed during a shootout with a rival gang.

The procession lasted more than four hours, with gang members taunting local officials and sounding their car horns outside the local government building and police headquarters. Police eventually moved in, detaining 24 demonstrators.