Police in Shandong, China, have cracked a cross-provincial online extortion case involving 268 incidents, including virtual currency money laundering.

Police in Dezhou, Shandong Province, China have cracked a cross-provincial online extortion case. The criminal gang posed as environmental inspection officials and journalists, using drones to film livestock farms and releasing negative videos to induce farmers to pay for removing the posts. The gang collected funds via payment QR codes and third-party payment platforms, which then settled accounts with money laundering groups using virtual currency. Police reported that the gang committed 268 crimes across 22 cities in five provinces—Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu, and Anhui—over two months, with the case involving more than 800,000 yuan. To date, 23 suspects have been arrested, and assets worth over 2 million yuan linked to the case have been seized, impounded and frozen. (Source: Dazhong Daily)