On the 13th, the Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court and the Nan’an People’s Court in Fujian Province publicly announced the first-instance verdicts for the series of cases involving the Wei family criminal syndicate. Defendants Wei Huairen, Chen Dawei, and Liao Jingfang were sentenced to death; defendants Wei Qingtao, Kang Min, and Xiong Hengxing were sentenced to life imprisonment; and 55 other defendants—including Su Hongxiang, Deng Zida, and Chen Longjiang—received fixed-term prison sentences ranging from three years and three months to 24 years, alongside penalties such as fines, confiscation of property, and deportation.
According to CCTV reports, court proceedings established that since 2019, two criminal syndicates—the “Wei Huairen syndicate” (led by Wei Huairen and Wei Qingsong, with key members including subordinate Chen Longjiang and armed faction leaders Cha Guicheng and Yan Longdi) and the “Henry syndicate” (led by Wei Rong, Wei Qinghai, and Wei Qingtao, with key members including family member Su Hongxiang and subordinate Deng Zida)—leveraged the Wei family’s influence in the Kokang region of Myanmar. Relying on armed forces controlled by the family, they established multiple criminal compounds in the Kokang town of Laojie. They recruited “financial backers” to set up operations within these compounds, providing them with armed protection. Either independently or in collusion with these backers, the syndicates committed crimes including telecommunications and internet fraud, operating casinos, extortion, organizing prostitution, drug trafficking, and organizing illegal border crossings. The funds involved in these gambling and fraud activities totaled 12.2 billion RMB.
The Wei family criminal syndicate also colluded with fraud gangs within the compounds to kill individuals involved in the fraud operations who refused to submit to management, resulting in the deaths of two Chinese citizens. Additionally, Wei family member Chen Dawei used the armed forces under his control to commit wanton killings, causing the deaths of two Chinese citizens.