How an organized gang killed 17 people in order to extort compensation from mine owners

Source:Global Times Published: 2016/6/21 19:48:00

China's mines have long been notorious for their poor safety record, however, police have discovered that some fatal incidents are by no means accidents.

A man inspects a coal mine where miners were murdered. Photo: CFP

Under the Zhengai Mine in Lüliang, North China's Shanxi Province, rubble from a tunnel collapse created a small mountain of earth and rocks.

A fairly common scene in many of the country's dangerous coal mines. Sadly, the pair of feet sticking out from under the rocks is also not an unusual sight in the accident-prone industry.

Two miners worked together to dig out the dead man, who was known as Ai in the mine.

Ai "died" in the mine when a part of the mine caved in on top of him. When he died, he had only been working at the mine for two weeks along with two others from his hometown in Southwest China's Yunnan Province. In order to avoid an official investigation, the mine owner gave 800,000 yuan ($121,600) to the man's relatives, hoping to bring a swift end to the matter, according to the Southern Weekly.

But the real Ai didn't die and there was no accident. The miners pulled someone else's corpse from under those rocks.

The death has since been revealed as a typical case of mining accident fraud. The real Ai's role was to lend his identity to the dead man. In this "accident," he and his "mother" Luo split 110,000 yuan together.

In scenes reminiscent from the 2003 movie Blind Shaft, they killed one of their own and then extorted money from the mine owner by claiming it was a tragic mining accident and that if they were paid a reasonable amount of compensation they would make the trouble go away.

But after "dying" several times, Ai was found out by police.

In 2014, a mining accident killed a miner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. His registered name was also "Ai." When police investigated, they found out that "Ai" still had residency and transportation records in Yunnan, more than 2,000 kilometers away.

Police suspected that this was murder. After detaining four suspects, they found out more about their gang and eventually arrested a total of 74 people in total who had weaved a web of organized crime and murder.

On May 30, 2016, the local procuratorate in Wulat, Inner Mongolia, charged the 74 with crimes ranging from murder and fraud to blackmail. They have been blamed for the deaths of 17 people which occurred from 2010 to 2014 in six provinces and autonomous regions.

The series of cases will go to trial around October this year.

Police seize suspects who murdered miners in fake mine collapses. Photo: CFP

Choosing victims

Most of the 74 defendants are also from Zhaotong, Yunnan. The oldest of them is over 60 years old, while the youngest was born in 1990.

Mining fraud is something of a family business. A judicial official in Wulat told the Southern Weekly that in Shisun village, Yunnan Province, at least eight people from the same family were arrested as part of the 74.

Locals have nicknamed people who fake this type of accident "pig slaughters." They are organized and each have their own specific role: some look for victims, some contact mines, some keep a lookout, some kill and some pretend to be the victims' family members and negotiate compensation.

Homeless men, colleagues and friends who are passing by are all potential targets as long as they are men and look a little like one of the gang's members.

The real victim of the Lüliang "mining accident," surnamed He, was walking down the street when one of the suspects noticed that he looked like Ai. A few days later, the gang lured him to the mine by offering him a big payday.

Ai gave He his ID card to use, in order to fake his death. The "pig slaughterers" have several ways to persuade people to take on the identity of another, such as claiming it is necessary if they are to make money or simply stealing the victim's ID card and then offering their co-conspirators' card as a replacement.

Suspects usually choose remote, badly run, private mines. Some mines are engaged in illegal resource exploitation and production, according to the Southern Weekly.



In the well

Two or three gang members will take the victim deep into the mine. This requires the cooperation of the foreman who makes the work schedule, as they need to put the killers and their victim into one team and make sure they can get some privacy in the mineshaft. A foreman in a coal mine in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province not only helped suspects with scheduling, but also helped them to find the perfect place to commit the crime.

Some people who want to make money this way do not want blood on their hands. These who are unwilling to kill people can hire killers to do this for them. In one case in Changzhi, Shanxi, two men who wanted to commit this kind of murder and fraud tried to contact known killer Wang Qiangwen. When they couldn't get hold of him immediately, they shelved their plans until they found Wang.

Wang, hard-featured and of short stature, was born in Shisun village in 1982. His mother left home when he was 12. The next year, Wang began to wander the country. In his 20s, he was given a 2-year sentence by a court for harboring a criminal.

Villagers said that he was one of the first villagers to commit a "blind shaft" crime. Wang demanded hefty fees for his services. He once asked for 180,000 yuan to kill someone.

After setting the stage, the suspects usually commit the crime within a week. They liked to do it at night, usually at 9pm or 10pm. One man would always keep watch.

As opposed to the film's plot in which the killer said some kind words to the victim before ending his life, in reality the murderers attacked the men from behind without any warning and then pulled down the ceiling onto their bodies, creating the appearance of an accidental mine collapse.

Negotiation

The first reaction of most mine owners was to try to quietly reach a settlement with the deceased's family. Some even sent the corpse to a neighboring province to dispose of it.

All the victims in the 17 cases were cremated to conceal evidence. In China, a death certificate is needed for cremation. If people die naturally, the hospital will issue the certificate. If not, the security department must give the certificate.

IN this and other "blind shaft" cases, very few victims are sent to hospital for emergency treatment. Usually mine owners use their connections to get a fake certificate.

At the same time, the mine owners will negotiate with gang members posing as the victim's relatives. They seldom check the real identity of the relatives.

A source revealed to the Southern Weekly that of the 17 murders involved in the latest case, one mine owner asked the relatives to provide an official certificate proving that they are the deceased's direct relatives. The relatives bribed an official in Yunnan to provide them with one. This official was the only civil servant charged among the 74 defendants.

The "relatives" often get about 700,000 yuan in compensation. The payment is made by bank transfer. And sometimes, the owners will give them an additional 10,000 or 20,000 yuan in travel expenses.

After getting the money, they withdraw it outside the province in which they have committed the crime and find a hotel to split the money. The murderer takes the largest share, the next is the planner.

Proof

According to the Beijing News, during police interrogation, the 74 suspects provided leads on 35 other cases, but there are no bodies and no physical evidence in any of these cases. The gang burned most of the evidence of their crimes, a policeman told the Beijing News, making many of the murders difficult to pursue further.

In 17 murders, 16 of the victims' bodies were burned and the ashes were scattered widely, including being flushed down hotel toilets and thrown out of train windows or into trash cans.

In murder cases where there's no body, there's a high standard for other types of proof, because the prosecutors must prove somebody died, Yuan Bin, a criminal law professor at Beijing Normal University told Southern Weekly.

"We can't let these suspects escape their legal responsibilities because there's no body," Yuan said. There's proof such as suspects' testimonies, miners' testimonies, funeral homes' records, bank transfer records, so it should not be difficult to prove there have been multiple deaths.

Management loopholes

According to media reports, there have been many similar "blind shaft" murders, carried out by different crime organization groups. A suspect in Southwest China's Sichuan Province faked more than 30 mining accidents from 2009 to 2011. Two brothers in Shanxi killed their uncle in 2009 and pretended it was a mining accident. There are also many groups who have traveled across provinces, killing and burying victims under mines.

"Because they are in remote and poverty-stricken areas, these suspects don't have any means of obtaining wealth," Zhang Ping, a Beijing-based lawyer told thepaper.cn

A thepaper.cn reporter found that almost all criminals involved in mining fraud are from poor areas, such as Shaanxi, Shanxi, Yunnan and Sichuan. The victims are also poor. In a case in Handan, North China's Hebei Province, two of the victims were over 30 and worked in a mine in order to save up and marry.

A key reason these fake mining accidents keep happening is there are huge loopholes in the management and security of mines, Jiang Guohua, a professor of law at Wuhan University told thepaper.cn.

Even though there are a few laws regarding safety of mines, the government still needs to reinforce surveillance.

Also, Jiang said he believes some mines don't follow national policies on hiring. When accidents happen, mine owners want to pay money and close the matter as soon as possible, which is why the suspects can make easy money through these murders.


Newspaper headline: Mineshaft murders


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