By October 3rd of last year, the special investigation team traveled through many provinces and cities such as Guangdong, Guangxi, and Anhui. They successively arrested 15 suspects involved in the case, including Lu (female, 69 years old), Xie Qing (male, 62 years old), and Yan Ye (male, 72 years old) in Yangchun City and Luoding City, Guangdong Province. They also rescued five mentally challenged women from their residences: Pan Gui (26 years old, from XinXing County, Guangdong), "Lame Woman" (about 50 years old, identity unknown), "Foolish Woman" (about 40 years old, identity unknown), "Waste Woman" (about 45 years old, identity unknown), and "Mute Woman" (about 40 years old, identity unknown). At the same time, they solved another 11 cases of human trafficking.
In this case, 15 mentally challenged women were trafficked, among which 10 were successfully rescued. Another 5 went missing in the homes of their buyers and their whereabouts are unknown. Among the 10 rescued mentally challenged women, 4 whose identities have been confirmed have been handed over to their guardians. The other 6, whose identities cannot be verified, have been transferred to the local civil affairs department.
According to reports by Southern Metropolis Daily (Weibo), Zheng Cheng, a reporter, with correspondents Lu Dingzhen and Zhang Ruoyue, a large-scale human trafficking gang consisting of 23 people with an average age of 58 was recently dismantled by the Zhaoqing Railway Police. A total of 26 human trafficking cases were solved, and 10 mentally challenged women were successfully rescued.
The reporter learned that on May 24, 2011, suspects Yan, Guo, Yao, and Wei abducted two mentally challenged women. They were caught by the on-duty police at Yangchun Railway Station when boarding the T202 passenger train at Yangchun Railway Station, heading for Quzhou, Anhui Province, for a transaction.
On May 31st, based on the confessions of the suspects, the special investigation team successively captured other members of the gang in Yangchun City and Luoding City, Guangdong Province. These included Xie (male, 55 years old), Lan Tai (male, 68 years old, all from Yangchun, Guangdong), Liu Mou (male, 79 years old), and Liu Mou Lin (male, 73 years old, all from Luoding, Guangdong). They also rescued three restrained mentally challenged women named "Huang Ling" (about 50 years old, identity unknown), "Foolish Girl One" (about 30 years old, identity unknown), and "Foolish Girl Two" (about 40 years old, identity unknown) from Liu's residence.
Subsequently, the railway police formed a special investigation team to conduct investigations. It was determined that this was a criminal gang where local traffickers selected mentally challenged women and then linked up with out-of-town traffickers to sell them across the country.
On February 13th, the reporter learned from Zhaoqing Railway Court that the Ministry of Public Security's supervised "May 24th" major human trafficking case involving mentally challenged women was announced on February 10th at the Zhaoqing Railway Court. Eleven main suspects were sentenced to between 2 and 12 years in prison for the crime of trafficking women and children.
Among the 15 victims, 10 were successfully rescued while 5 went missing.
The court found that the oldest human trafficker was 79 years old.
The investigation revealed that since May 2005, the main culprits, Guo and Yao (out-of-town traffickers), colluded with Wei and Yan (local traffickers). Wei and Yan were responsible for contacting two upstream groups in Yangchun region (headed by suspects Lan and Xie) and Luoding region (headed by suspects surnamed Liu). They first deceived or purchased mentally challenged women from victims' homes or public places like stations and streets for prices ranging from 200 to 500 yuan for primary acquisition and 3000 to 5000 yuan for secondary acquisition. Then they kept them at home, during which there were instances of abuse and rape of these mentally challenged women. Subsequently, Guo and Yao sold them for thousands to tens of thousands of yuan to places like Guangdong, Anhui, and Guangxi for profit. As the investigation deepened, more crimes committed by the gang were uncovered, drawing attention from the Ministry of Public Security, designating it as a key supervised case in 2011.
By October last year, the police successfully apprehended all 23 suspects, solving 26 human trafficking cases.