Xi'an Police Bust Money Laundering Gang Xi'an police recently announced a major "running points" money laundering case. Through intelligence analysis and extended tracking, police successfully dismantled a large-scale, organized fraud-related running points criminal gang, destroyed multiple hidden dens, and arrested all involved individuals, with illicit fund flows reaching over 5 million yuan. According to clues uncovered by the Nanyuanmen Police Station of the Beilin Branch, a batch of online recruitment pitches recently appeared using high pay and easy part-time work as bait, specifically targeting idle members of society and young people to participate in so-called part-time work involving "collecting transfers on behalf of others and scanning codes to move transaction flows." The criminal gang was tightly organized with clear division of labor, using a large number of Alipay merchant payment codes to collect, divert, and launder illicit funds for upstream black and gray industries such as overseas telecom fraud and online gambling, suspected of crimes including aiding information network criminal activities and money laundering. To evade investigation and crackdown by public security organs, the gang secretly set up multiple crime dens inside apartment buildings in Weiyang District, Xi'an, operating in a closed loop for a long time. Gang members uniformly used large numbers of mobile phone devices and bulk payment codes to rapidly split and transfer involved funds at high frequency, increasing the difficulty for police to trace the money and recover assets. After analysis, surveillance, and data review, Xi'an Beilin police locked down the gang's hiding locations, organizational structure, and the movements of those involved. After securing relevant evidence, police launched a coordinated arrest operation on September 9, simultaneously raiding three running points crime dens in Weiyang District. A total of 14 suspects were arrested in the operation, and 35 mobile phones used in the crimes and 65 payment codes of various types were seized at the scene. According to preliminary police verification and statistics, the gang's cumulative illegal fund flows in a short period exceeded 5 million yuan, with large amounts of fraud proceeds quickly diverted through relevant accounts. According to the police's follow-up review notice, among the 14 people involved, 7 were criminally detained in accordance with the law, 4 were given administrative penalties, and the remaining individuals are still undergoing further screening and handling. The case is still under further investigation, and police are continuing to dig deeper into the gang's upstream organizers, behind-the-scenes operators, and the source of upstream fraud funds, making every effort to trace the flow of involved illicit money. Police remind the public that all part-time jobs claiming low thresholds, high returns, scanning codes to move transaction flows, or collecting and transferring funds on behalf of others are high-risk traps involving running points money laundering. Participating in lending, renting out, or selling payment codes, bank cards, or mobile phone accounts, or helping unfamiliar funds circulate, may be suspected of illegal and criminal activity and entail corresponding legal liability. Do not covet small commissions and cross the legal red line.
