Shandong gang members, Party slackers punished

Fifty-four criminal organizations and 284 mafia-style gangs in Shandong province have been busted as of Tuesday since the province launched its first round of crackdowns on organized crime, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Shandong launched the campaign on Aug 30 when an inspection team from the central government arrived.

"The tasks of the first round of the campaign have been accomplished," Zhang Zhihua, deputy head of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Shandong Committee of the Communist Party of China, said at a news conference.

"More than 13,000 people have been detained. More than 1,000 people who served as protective umbrellas and were involved with corruption were investigated and punished. More than 1.8 billion yuan ($263 million) worth of assets have been seized," he said.

"Shandong has zero tolerance of organized crime and protective umbrellas. Gangs have even been found trying to take control of political power at the grassroots level," he added. "And those who are found to offer protective umbrellas to the gangs will be severely punished."

The province is double-checking the Party leadership in 3,157 villages that were found to have weak Party committees. Members of the committees who are found to be involved in corruption and organized crimes will be removed, Zhang said.

"We have dismissed 199 village Party secretaries," Zhang said.

As of Tuesday, 159 people had surrendered themselves to the public security authorities after the province published a notice on Sept 15 urging gang-related criminal suspects to give themselves up.

The second round of the campaign started on Tuesday and will go through the end of the month.