Home

China sentences notorious gang 'godmother'

Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2009-11-03 20:55.

Story here. Excerpt:

'BEIJING – Dubbed the "godmother" of the Chinese underworld, she was notorious for her toughness and a lavish lifestyle that reportedly included luxury villas and a stable of 16 young lovers.

Her criminal reign ended Tuesday when Xie Caiping, 46, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for running illegal casinos and bribing government officials. Her trial was one of a series of gang prosecutions in the southwestern city of Chongqing that have featured lurid testimony about sex, corruption and the violent underworld.

Xie is the only female gang boss to be tried as part of a monthslong crackdown on local gangs, known as "black societies," in the sprawling southwestern megacity of 30 million. The trials have exposed the tangled web of links between government officials and police officers who sought to provide cover for the crime syndicates.
...
The court notice said Xie's gang "severely broke the normal order of society," and illegally detained others and allowed loan sharking at the casinos. The casino took a cut of the profits won by gamblers, the notice said. It said casino bosses hired stand-ins to take the blame when there was a crackdown and paid bribes to judicial officials.'

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Back in the day...

Submitted by mcc99 on Tue, 2009-11-03 21:00.

.... they'd've been shot in the back of their heads in a public square with listings of their crimes tied around their necks.

This new generation of party leaders just ain't cut form the same cloth their predecessors were. Hell, "Godmother Xie" will be out before she's even at the US's retirement age of 65. She'll probably keep running her racket from inside prison. She'll probably even get to take her "16 young lovers" with her, too!

Westernized, indeed!

»