The suspects met in jail and after their release, they targeted people who looked like students. They lured or coerced the victims from the center of Xingtai City to remote areas of the Development Zone where they robbed them at knife-point.
Yesterday morning, the Public Security Bureau of the Xingtai Development Zone announced this series of robbery and theft cases to the public.
■ Frequent Cases
On October 6th, near a hotel in the Qiaodong District of Xingtai City, when Zhang Yang (a pseudonym) was walking towards the train station with his laptop, two strangers suddenly approached him. They claimed to be friends of Zhang Yang's friend, and that Zhang Yang's "friend" had been injured and hoped that Zhang Yang could go with them to take a look. While Zhang Yang was hesitating, they had already hailed a taxi for him and drove off towards the Development Zone. When they reached a secluded location west of Daliangzhuang Village in the Development Zone, Zhang Yang suddenly realized he was in trouble. The group began to beat him, took his bank card, and withdrew money from it.
In the following period, similar cases occurred multiple times, mainly around Xingtai Train Station, bus stations, banks, and colleges, targeting people who looked like students.
The police of the Xingtai Development Zone quickly formed a special task force to focus on breaking the case and made every effort to solve it.
■ Serial Case Solving
The series of cases had the same modus operandi and relatively fixed crime scenes. The special task force decided to use information technology to lead the investigation work. After systematic data comparison, based on relatively stable methods of operation, number of people involved, and routes, the police analyzed and linked the cases that occurred during this period, linking a total of five cases.
The officers promptly reported the cases to the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Xingtai Municipal Bureau and issued early warning information to try to link more cases within the city, and also disclosed the case details to the public through various means to comprehensively collect criminal clues of similar cases.
Additionally, according to the situation of the victims' bank cards being cashed out, the officers retrieved surveillance video screenshots, successfully locking onto the suspects who withdrew the money, and then tracked them down using technical means.
■ Suspects Arrested
On October 25th, with the cooperation of the Criminal Investigation Brigade and the Action Technology Brigade of the Xingtai Municipal Bureau, the special task force locked onto all nine suspects involved in the robbery.
On the night of October 27th, the special task force launched an arrest operation against the main suspects, splitting into three teams to head to Ningjin, Boxiang, and Xingtai County to capture the suspects. In the early hours of October 28th, three suspects, Yuan Mou, Wang Mou, and Shang Mou, were captured.
In the early hours of October 31st, according to the confessions of the three, the police arrested Miao Mou and Chen Dong Mou, who had collaborated with Shang Mou on other crimes.
On the morning of October 31st, the remaining four members of the gang - Gao Mou, Chen Mou, Liu Mou, and Wang Mou - were put on the wanted list.
On the evening of November 1st, Gao Mou was arrested in Langfang.
■ Jail-Mates Gang
According to the confessions of Wang, Shang, Yuan, Miao, and Chen, since the beginning of September 2010, the nine-person criminal gang led by Yuan Mou targeted lone pedestrians around Xingtai Train Station, bus stations, and Xingtai College. Using various excuses, they lured the victims to the outskirts of the Development Zone where they carried out fifteen robberies. They also confessed to over forty other cases involving theft, extortion, and motorcycle snatchings.
According to the police, most of the suspects met in jail, among whom Wang was serving his third sentence. Currently, Yuan Mou and others have been criminally detained, and the interrogation and manhunt are ongoing.