Criminal gang leaders executed in central China

Xinhua

CHANGSHA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A court in central China's Hunan Province sentenced two leaders of a local organized crime group to death with two year reprieve on Tuesday, according to local authorities.

The Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Intermediate People's Court handed down the sentences to Liu Wanliang and Yang Zhengliang for their crimes, which included commandeering a private owned manganese mine, organizing and leading a criminal gang, murder, racketeering, sheltering criminals and pandering.

The court also sentenced four of the gang's members to life imprisonment and 23 other gang members to jail terms from two to 20 years.

According to the court, Liu and his gang reaped significant profits from a privately-owned mine that they seized in 2006. Over the following year, Liu illegally purchased two firearms, bringing his personal collection to eight weapons, the court said. Liu used his firearms to kill one person and injure five others, according to the court.

Spanish police arrest suspected Chinese mafia members

CNN

Madrid (CNN) -- Police in Barcelona have arrested 39 members of a suspected Chinese mafia and freed 30 young Chinese women whom they allegedly forced into prostitution, a senior officer of the Catalan regional police told CNN Wednesday. 

The arrests occurred earlier this week after a long investigation. It was the biggest strike to date against Chinese-run mafias involved in forced prostitution in the northeast region of Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, said the senior officer, Xavier Cortes, head of the Catalan police unit that fights human trafficking. 

In recent years, the Chinese crime syndicate had crowded out others from the prostitution market in the fashionable Eixample district of Barcelona by using forced prostitution and charging below-market rates, Cortes said. 

The women were forced to work in unsanitary conditions and in marathon sessions, seeing eight clients in a row for an hour each, he said. 

After initial arraignments, a judge ordered 33 of the suspects to remain in prison. Six others were released but remain under investigation, and must check in regularly with authorities, Cortes said.