Police Completely Dismantle Seduction Robbery Gang
Frequent Alarms: Seduction Robberies Reported Near Huangpu Road Intersection
The Huangpu Road intersection on the Liberation Avenue in Hankou, adjacent to the Air Force 161 Hospital, sees a constant stream of patients every day. Additionally, buses heading to Huangpi and Xinzhou stop here to pick up passengers, resulting in a large flow of people.
Not far from the 161 Hospital lies the Jiang'an District's Xinjian Street area, an unrenovated urban village filled with private houses where many migrant workers rent homes.
The dense population and numerous rental properties have made this area a breeding ground for criminal activities by some lawless individuals.
"Big brother, a massage for 20 yuan, guaranteed satisfaction." For a period, many heavily made-up women were seen soliciting customers at the Huangpu Road intersection on Liberation Avenue, the central garden, and the nearby Xinjian Street area. Some men, unable to resist the temptation, were lured into rented apartments where they were violently robbed by men lying in wait before they could even enjoy the "service," often leaving them penniless. Some men were even robbed by the woman's accomplices in the alleyways before they could enter the house and attempt to leave.
The situation was repeatedly reported to the police. The Political Commissar of the Jiang'an Public Security Bureau, Han Shilian, and the Bureau Chief, Liu Hanwen, took charge, making the resolution of seduction robbery issues around the Huangpu Road Central Garden one of their key cases for the year.
Investigation Halted: Police Officers Themselves Under Surveillance
In March this year, officers from the Erqi Police Station and the Criminal Investigation Brigade formed a special task force and secretly moved into a nearby rental property in the Xinjian Street area.
Equipped with high-powered lenses for video and photography equipment, the task force observed suspicious individuals near the Huangpu Road intersection and the Xinjian Street area, secretly photographing and recording them as evidence. Through nearly two months of work, they collected photos and nicknames of several suspected key individuals.
However, the case encountered difficulties: first, there were many suspects, about 6-7 gangs, each consisting of nearly ten people who were not fixed members. It was difficult to fully grasp all the information through covert surveillance, making later arrests challenging. Secondly, some victims feared legal consequences due to potential involvement in prostitution and were unwilling to report the crimes. Even if they did report, due to unfamiliarity with the area, they couldn't accurately provide specific locations or details to the police. Often, only the female suspects involved in the seduction could be caught. These women, having long engaged in illegal activities and frequently dealt with by the authorities, had strong counter-surveillance abilities. By the time the victims were beaten and disoriented, their ability to identify other suspects was weak, making it difficult to collect and secure evidence.
After over a month of undercover deployment, these criminal suspects had already grasped the police's movements. They, in turn, began surveilling the police officers, even assigning people to monitor the task force's base daily. The police's actions were no longer secret.
Task Force leaders realized that conventional tactics would not be effective and decided to withdraw the team.
Secret Reconnaissance: Police Feign Retreat to Lock Down Suspects
The task force officers loudly announced their withdrawal from their rented accommodation and spread rumors that the investigation had stalled. However, secretly, the Erqi Police Station arranged for Deputy Chief of Criminal Investigation, Liu Yuanjie, along with officers Hu Jianchao and Gong Ren, to conduct another covert reconnaissance.
The three officers discreetly reviewed all cases of seduction-induced robberies in the area, revisiting victims to help them identify suspect photographs and screen for key suspects. At the same time, whenever such a 110 alarm or public report occurred, the three officers immediately arrived at the scene to question the victims and archive all potentially involved individuals.
Through investigations, the officers identified 14 alleys in the Xinjian community as key areas of activity for criminals. They promptly retrieved video surveillance footage from these locations and installed additional cameras in four areas without coverage, filling gaps in monitoring and further collecting suspect data.
At the same time, the officers openly checked 60+ street women during peak hours, screening out hundreds of pieces of information to identify nearly a hundred targets. Combining this with previous knowledge of suspects, they matched and analyzed the network structure of the gang, determining the focus of their work.
Through their efforts, the officers ruled out some "temporary gangs" occasionally operating in the Xinjian area and learned that the region harbored a major organized crime group composed of more than 10 smaller gangs. The task force decided to break through using gangs led by figures like "Old Pan," "Big Fool," and "Xingwang."
Decisive Arrests: Key Members Captured During a Wedding Banquet
The officers' "withdrawal" lulled the suspects into complacency, leading them to believe the police were powerless against them, causing them to act even more brazenly. Their methods evolved from simply seducing and robbing prostitutes to directly targeting passersby, resorting to violence at the slightest resistance, averaging more than two cases per day.
Each case prompted the police to promptly retrieve surveillance footage, fixing which women solicited customers, which intersections they entered, and which male suspects followed up. Evidence was collected and victims revisited. Through painstaking efforts, the police determined that Luo Yuanxiang from Yunmeng, Pan Baoqing, Cai Yan from Shiyan, Li Fuping from Yichang, and others were major suspects.
On May 4th, the task force obtained crucial intelligence: an important associate of several gangs was getting married, and key members would gather at Xia Chenjiahu. The bureau leadership decided to seize the opportunity to make arrests.
That afternoon, the Jiang'an Public Security Bureau mobilized nearly a hundred officers from the Criminal Investigation Brigade, Patrol Brigade, and Erqi Police Station to stand by. At 5 PM, the officers decisively acted, arresting 16 suspects including Pan Baoqing and Li Fuping gambling in a "mahjong room" in Xia Chenjiahu on Sanyang Road.
After intense interrogation, five more suspects, including Luo Yuanxiang and Tan Huixia, were captured at a restaurant in the Xinjian community and near Chongren Road at 7 PM and 11 PM respectively. After screening, 16 of the 21 arrested individuals were identified as core members of the criminal group, involving six criminal gangs.
Gang Exposed: Over Ten Gangs Formed an Alliance Committing Hundreds of Crimes
After the suspects were apprehended, the Jiang'an police conducted overnight interrogations, breaking down the alliances among gang members one by one.
Upon review, suspects Luo Yuanxiang, Pan Baoqing, and others confessed to their crimes of seduction-based robbery and admitted to committing over 100 crimes since the beginning of the year across Wuhan and neighboring provinces, involving nearly 400,000 yuan.
It was revealed that the group primarily consisted of natives from Hunan, Huangshi, Anlu, Xiaogan, and Jiangxia, forming over ten loosely connected gangs. Each gang had 1-2 pimps controlling 3-4 women. They operated both independently and collaboratively: generally, the female suspects (streetwalkers) would lure victims, while male suspects would opportunistically rob them. For example, on March 28th at 1 PM, suspect Li Fuping conspired with Liu Yang and Li Xianju to seduce victim Li Mou into a rented apartment, robbing him of over 6000 yuan. On April 16th at 8 PM, suspects Luo Yuanxiang and Xu Jianhong seduced victim Liao Mou into a rented apartment, robbing him of over 2000 yuan.
When encountering physically robust victims, if several male suspects from one gang felt incapable or anticipated trouble, they would temporarily call on male members from another gang or gangs nearby to assist. This "help" was unpaid, as they expected reciprocal assistance when in difficulty themselves.
Currently, nearly 30 members of the criminal group have been arrested, with over ten remaining wanted online. Successfully dismantling this crime syndicate has significantly reduced key criminal alerts in the Huangpu Road Central Garden area. Since the concentrated arrests, no similar incidents have been reported in the region.