ON April 4, 2004, when a man surnamed Kang drove through Pingdi Subdistrict, Pingshan, he did not expect that a mild rear-end collision would lead to a conflict with some gang members and a severe injury to one of his friends sitting in the back seat of his van.

Kang’s sudden change of lanes to avoid a roadblock made his van bump into a sedan. The car’s driver, Huang Song, got out of the car and stopped Kang’s van. Huang and Kang agreed to go to Huang’s factory to negotiate how to handle the accident. However, Kang was received by more than 10 people holding iron bars and knives upon his arrival at the factory.

Kang managed to flee the scene but his friend, identified as Zhu, was badly injured by the thugs.

Huang was a follower of a gang leader named Yang Changhui. In fear of being wanted by police for intentional injury, Huang came to Yang for help. With Yang’s help, Huang threatened the victim to keep silent, and agreed to pay the medical fees for Kang’s injured friend.

Huang’s case is just the tip of an iceberg of crimes committed by Yang’s gang that revealed by the authority recently.

Since 2000, the gang led by Yang has committed dozens of crimes, such as intentional injury, blackmail, illegal operation of casinos and forced trades, in what was then Kengzi Township and now the Kengzi Subdistrict.

Yang was sentenced to 17 years behind bars in February 2017. His followers also received jail terms of various lengths.

As the city government is cracking down on organized crime, Yang’s cases again caught public attention as one of the largest gangs busted in the past decade, according to yesterday’s Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

Yang was notorious in Kengzi for his misconduct and gathering a group of thugs to bully residents in the area. He and his followers would constantly threaten the safety of the residents and their property over the past decade or so.

Another case involving one of Yang’s gang members took place from 2008 to 2012 when a suspect named Xu Zhihua gathered a group of gangsters to threaten people selling winter melons to ensure they only purchased vegetables from him at a higher price to make his own business thrive.

In September 2009, Xu and several other gangsters were at a restaurant and ran into a victim surnamed Pan who operated a winter melon wholesale business at the same market as Xu. Under Xu’s order, the gang members beat Pan to “teach him a lesson” on how to “behave better” in the market.

It was estimated that Pan lost more than 500,000 yuan (US$72,895) during the four years when Xu monopolized the business at the market.

Yang and 27 suspects were eventually put on trial at the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court in March 2016. Yang was accused of various crimes including organizing a gang, intentional injury to death, gathering crowds to engage in affrays, blackmailing and forcing trade. (Zhang Qian)