Massive gang trial kicks off

A former member of the Municipal People's Congress and political advisory body in Yangjiang, Guangdong province is being tried as a leader of an organized gang that ran extensive criminal activities in the city for the past two decades.

Lin Guoqin, 53, who was in the Yangjiang Municipal People's Congress and Yangjiang municipal committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is accused of organizing and leading a group that committed murder, ran casinos and extorted people, among other crimes, the local Nanfang Daily reported on Monday.

Lin, together with another leader, businessman Xu Guoqin, 42, also used the gang to monopolize the local seafood, construction material, gas and transportation markets since the mid-1990s, the newspaper quoted the indictment as saying.