The 400 billion national "virtual currency first case" involved in the case was solved

Source: Ping An Hubei

On July 18, the reporter learned from the Public Security Bureau of Shayang County, Jingmen City, Hubei Province that Qiu Moumou, the principal culprit in the 400 billion cross-border online gambling case, has been sent for trial according to law. For this moment, the police officers of the task force have been fighting for two years.

Mobile phone gambling police reveal a shocking case

“Officer, I am reporting the crime, please help me, I am gambling on my mobile phone and my family is going to be ruined!”

On July 28, 2021, Xiong Xong, Shayang County, Hubei Province reported the case to the Jishan Police Station. No one expected that a shocking case of cross-border online gambling had just revealed the tip of the iceberg.

In his spare time, Xiong likes to play with his mobile phone to pass the time. One day in June of that year, he saw his colleagues playing chess and card games on their mobile phones, and won thousands of yuan after recharging 100 yuan, which made him very envious. Xiong immediately downloaded this software called “XXX Chess and Board Game”, and he soon won a sum of money. After playing for a period of time, the bet got bigger and bigger, but the probability of winning became smaller and smaller, and finally lost more than 100,000 yuan.

The “728 Task Force” destroyed the agency gang and seized computers, mobile phones and other crime tools

With the in-depth investigation of the case, the police from the Shayang County Public Security Bureau realized that this was by no means a seemingly simple case of using a mobile app to gamble online. The large number of people involved, the wide area, the huge amount of funds, and the complexity of money laundering methods are unprecedented for this group of police officers from county-level public security organs.

“This online gambling case was preliminarily found. The amount involved in the case was 400 billion. There were more than 50,000 people involved. The server was set up outside the country. The money laundering method used the most difficult virtual currency. The main backbone of the case may be outside the country… …”

After listening to the case report from the Shayang County Public Security Bureau, Chen Shi, the deputy mayor of Jingmen City and director of the Public Security Bureau, immediately ordered that the “728” task force be formed by mobilizing elite police forces and the special investigation team of the Shayang County Public Security Bureau.

With the continuous deepening of the investigation of the case, the case has been identified as a case of provincial governor and ministerial governor by the relevant higher authorities.

The difficulty of investigation gave rise to classic tactics

The particularity of new types of cybercrime makes traditional investigative techniques and tactics “ineffective”.

“It’s not easy, it’s hard to do!” Ma Jun, the head of the “728” task force, was “stressed”. With the deepening of the investigation of the case, the investigators were struggling in the face of this complicated and maze-like criminal network.

——Online gambling is under the guise of chess and card games, and the server is set up outside the country to avoid attack; tens of thousands of people are involved in the gambling, and it is difficult to investigate and obtain evidence!

——The backbone of the criminal gang is commanded overseas, and hundreds of offline agents have been developed in the country, making it difficult to locate and arrest!

——Online game bean recharge, traditional bank card batch circulation, fourth-party payment platform precipitation, virtual currency laundering, gambling-related funds disguised and repeatedly circulated, it is difficult to connect and trace the source!

For a time, the investigation of the case hit a wall everywhere and was struggling.

The task force repatriated three suspects including Qiu Mou from abroad

“Knowing that we are approaching the key core and finding the main backbone of the suspect gang, but it still feels like there is a layer of veil that can’t be uncovered.” The police in the special case team traced the flow of personnel, information, and capital day and night. It gets stuck at a critical point.

“The prosperity of the world is for profit, and the chaos of the world is for profit.” The words of Zheng Daiping, the deputy county magistrate of Shayang County and director of the Public Security Bureau, caught the eyes of the police officers in the task force.

“In this case, whether it is the organizational framework of the suspect gang or the circulation network of fund transfers, they are as densely intertwined as human blood vessels, but they must have the intersection of capillaries and main arteries, and finally flow into the heart of the fund pool. .Funds are the blood of this case, as long as we keep an eye on the blood, follow and track, we will definitely find the key to the case!”

The words of Yan Yintao, the backbone of the investigation team of the special case, enlightened the comrades who have been staring at the massive data analysis for several months, but with little success. A pioneering classic technique of combating new types of cybercrime - “fund penetration method” was born. !

Massive data collision locks the crime path

After determining the investigative thinking of the “fund penetration method”, the case detection is like installing a GPS navigation system, which is efficient, accurate, and overwhelming.

The organizational charts of the suspects are posted and linked on the case analysis whiteboard.

A sum of money involved in gambling is crossed and aggregated in the database of the computer.

The backbone of the suspect gang is located and visualized in the investigator’s brain…

The police of the special case team peeled away cocoons from the massive transaction data, and finally successfully locked the capital chain and related suspects. Many gambling agents, recharge agents, and intermediary agent gangs lurking all over the country have gradually surfaced.

The police of the special case team are at the scene of the arrest operation in Sichuan Province

From December 2021 to April 2022, the police of the special case team rushed to Fujian, Sichuan, Guangxi, Henan and other places to carry out arrest operations, successively destroyed 14 related gangs, arrested more than 130 suspects, and seized more than 300 computers and mobile phones involved in the case. 200 mobile phone cards and bank cards, 18 banknote counters and POS machines were involved.

During the interrogation, the police found that all the transactions of the gamblers were settled with a virtual currency. The special case team followed the clues and followed the line, and successfully locked multiple virtual currency accounts involved in the case. The special case team connected with the virtual currency issuer and froze the relevant virtual currency account involved, preventing the virtual currency involved in the account worth 160 million US dollars (about 1 billion yuan) from flowing into the hands of the suspect gang.

In October 2022, the People’s Court of Shayang County issued a judgment to confiscate part of the frozen virtual currency according to law. This case became the first “virtual currency case” confiscated by the court in the country.

To catch a thief, you must capture the king to arrest the principal criminal across borders

After nearly two years of arduous investigation, layers of veils have finally been lifted in this major online gambling case, but the three main criminals are still at large outside the country. “Capturing the thief” requires “capturing the king”. The police of the special case team hold back their energy and launch the final “sprint”.

With the support and coordination of the Ministry of Public Security, the “728” project launched transnational judicial cooperation, and the Hubei Provincial Public Security Department led five members of the special case team to go abroad to pursue them.

“This is a tough battle. We have overcome many difficulties and successfully dealt with various unprecedented challenges.” The police of the special case team introduced that they work abroad in strict accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and actively communicate and cooperate with foreign law enforcement agencies.

The overseas arrest operation has received strong help and support from my country’s foreign affairs agencies in the country. The tortuous and difficult 59-day cross-border law enforcement finally came to a satisfactory result. In December 2022, three main suspects hiding abroad were captured and then sent back to China.

In June 2023, the principal culprit Qiu Moumou and others were transferred by the Shayang County People’s Procuratorate to the Shayang County People’s Court according to law, and the case entered the court trial. So far, this national “first case of virtual currency” has finally come to an end with the efforts of the task force.