A Gang Involved in Guangdong Province illegally exploited river sand and sentenced to nearly 3 billion yuan in compensation for ecological restoration
Xinhua News Agency, Guangzhou, December 24 (Reporter Mao Yizhu) The People's Court of Shunde District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province publicly sentenced the defendant Lin Jingquan and other 16 people in a criminal case involving an incidental civil public interest lawsuit on the 24th.
The court sentenced the defendant Lin Jingquan to 24 and 6 months imprisonment for the crime of organizing and leading a triad organization, illegal mining, illegal purchase of precious and endangered wildlife products, and confiscated all personal property.
In addition, 9 people including Lin Jingquan were sentenced to pay a total of more than 2.96 billion yuan for the restoration of the ecological environment and other costs within a limited time.
The court found that starting in the 1990s, Lin Jingquan had accumulated economic strength by operating fishing ports, nightclubs, and detergent factories in Sanshui District, Foshan City, and recruited social idlers to carry out illegal and criminal activities, and gradually formed an organization based on him. Leaders, backbone members are basically fixed, a large number of triad organizations.
Beginning in 2000, the organization illegally exploited river sand in the Sanshui section of the main stream of the Beijiang River. Through organized violent crimes, it has formed illegal control of the river sand mining industry in the basin involved.
Since 2009, the organization has also colluded with other groups to illegally mine river sand in the Qingyuan section of the mainstream of the Beijiang River, and jointly made illegal profits of over 1 billion yuan.
Through a series of illegal and criminal activities such as provoking troubles, gathering people to fight, organizing prostitution, colluding bids, illegal mining, etc., the organization amassed huge amounts of property, severely damaged the local ecological environment, economic and social life order, and caused an extremely bad society influences.
The court held that the actions of the defendant Lin Jingquan and others conformed to the criminal characteristics of a gangland organization and should be identified as a gangland organization.
Lin Jingquan should bear criminal responsibility for all crimes committed by the organization; members of other organizations bear criminal responsibility for the crimes they participated in and were sentenced to 19 to three years in prison.
The court also found that 9 people including Lin Jingquan and others jointly carried out the tort of illegal exploitation of river sand, which caused serious damage to the local ecological environment and harmed public interests, and they should bear legal responsibility.
Based on the criminal facts, nature, circumstances, and degree of harm to society of each defendant, as well as the degree of damage to the local ecology caused by the defendant’s illegal mining activities in an attached civil public interest lawsuit, the court made the above judgment.