American Chinese tycoon arrested for organized crime

In my post “Officials rounded up in campaign against economic crimes” yesterday, I mentioned Ming Pao report yesterday on Guangdong’s “three strikes and two constructions” campaign since the beginning of this year. “Three strikes” are striking the malpractices of domination of the market, manufacture and sale of fakes and commercial bribes. Provincial Party boss Wang Yang said that for the “three strikes”, the point of breakthrough should be “fighting against organized crime and removing evils”.

I, in addition, quoted the following passage of SCMP’s report on the campaign yesterday: “As part of the campaign, 300 armed police under the command of the Guangdong government raided the office of a property developer in Huizhou, east of Guangzhou on Friday and arrested 40 people, the Southern Metropolis News reported yesterday. The developer was identified as Hu Weisheng, or Vincent Wu, and he holds a US passport and Hong Kong ID card. The report said Huizhou police were not notified about the operation, nor did the government give a reason for the raid.”

Chine News Services gives more details of Hu’s arrest in its report: On the basis of the crue provided by common people, Huizhou City Public Security Bureau made an initial investigation and discovered an organized criminal gang head by Hu Weisheng, an American Chinese business tycoon. It immediately established a small detachment with picked policemen for further investigation and found that the gang was involved in illegal criminal activities including kidnapping for blackmail, willfully injuring people, arson, traffic of contrabands, operating casinos, dominance of the market, etc.

Organized and directed by the Provincial Department of Public Security, Huizhou City conducted an action with the code name of No. 1126 case of organized criminal gang on June 22. It dispatched more than 600 policemen divided into 32 teams to arrest gang members simultaneously in Huicheng, Huidong, Zhongkai and Huiyang districts. They arrested Hu Weisheng, head of the gang, and 43 people and seized 6 vehicles, 70-odd pistol bullets, properties and goods involved in the case .

Hu Weisheng, a Huidong County native is said to be quite influential among the Chinese in the entire Los Angeles area.

The case is still under investigation.