In late December 2019, in a factory building in Hailin City, Heilongjiang, there was a noise of renovating houses.
Tan Mou, the owner of the plant, is directing the dispatch.
At this time, the outdoor temperature reached more than -20 degrees, the cold wind was biting, and the eyes were white.
In such a cold and freezing weather, Tan's behavior is particularly abnormal.
Generally speaking, only in a constant temperature environment, decoration materials can play a better role.
The northeast is in the cold winter moon, why would Tan choose to decorate at this time?
The anomaly aroused suspicion among the police and further confirmed their suspicions.
As a result, a case involving 422 million yuan of the largest counterfeit banknotes in China was jointly detected by the Guangdong police and the Heilongjiang police!
So, how did the police grasp the information step by step and solve the case? Why did it involve the Guangdong police?
Track Tan and be careful to verify
Tan Mou, a native of Hailin City, Heilongjiang, runs a local building materials factory, mainly producing insulation boards.
The police tracked and found that Tan's social relationship was simple.
Recently, he has been in close contact with the local Li and Wang. What kind of relationship does the three of them have?
After the police continued to investigate, it was found that Li was a company's investment manager, with strong ability, complex social relations, and contacts in multiple industries.
Because he and Wang's mother are good friends, they let Wang follow him as an assistant.
By chance, One day, Wang learned that Li needed a larger factory, preferably with fewer people and convenient transportation.
At this time, Wang thought that his classmate Tan had a building materials factory, so in the name of introducing the project, tan and Li were invited together.
Tan's factory is located in Xinle Village, Hailin City, next to the highway intersection, nearby are shantytowns to be demolished, and there is no one in sight for ten miles and eight miles.
Li mou was very satisfied with the location of the factory and immediately signed the contract.
Obviously, Wang and Tan were headed by Li Mou. The focus of the police's observation shifted to Li.
By checking the traffic trajectory, the police found that on November 27, Li and Wang left Heilongjiang and ran thousands of miles away from Shenzhen, Guangdong.
This unusual phenomenon made the police wonder again.
What made them run from the northernmost tip of China to the southernmost tip?
Because the distance is too far, the Heilongjiang police can only ask the Guangdong police for assistance to inquire about Li's trajectory.
Unexpectedly, this cooperation coincided with the ideas of the police in the two places.
It turned out that the Guangdong police were also tracking Li Mou.
What did Li do to make the police in the two places work so hard?
Guangdong police revealed: After Li came to Guangdong, he met Liu and Fan at the same time.
Liu is a technician at a printing company, while Fan runs a waste collection station.
How to see, the three of them are all eight rods can not play the relationship.
However, the appearance of one person makes all this seem reasonable.
The police handled the case
This person is Zheng Mou, who is also the focus of the police.
As early as August 2004, Zheng was sentenced to 15 years in prison for counterfeiting currency.
Because he has a previous conviction, even after his release from prison, the police still dare not take it lightly.
In addition, after Zheng was released from prison, he has not had a serious job, but he often goes in and out of high-end places.
Where does his income come from? Police suspect he may commit another crime.
So, he kept track of his movements.
The police found that Zheng and a person named Liu met frequently, and the location of each meeting was very hidden and not fixed.
As we all know, the production of counterfeit money, indispensable is the technical staff, but Liu Mou happens to be proficient in printing.
This seemingly accidental event forced the police to be vigilant.
Behind the scenes, people appear
Within two days, Zheng found his fellow fan and introduced him to Liu.
Fan mou runs a waste collection station and has a certain economic strength relatively speaking.
But the investment in the manufacture of counterfeit money is not a small amount, and Zheng has found a partner, Chen Mou.
Chen mou is a restaurant owner with sufficient funds.
Zheng's ability to obtain financial support in such a short period of time shows that his ability is extraordinary.
In the previous counterfeiting case, he was the existence of the boss role.
If counterfeit money is really made, and after having the funds and manpower, it is time to buy equipment and find a venue.
Rural Heilongjiang
On November 23 of the same year, Liu and Fan left Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and went to Heilongjiang.
Two days later, the two returned to Shenzhen.
The distance between the two places is more than 3,000 kilometers, and the frequent back and forth makes the police wonder.
Suddenly, they came up with a bold conjecture: Could Zheng and others choose the venue for making counterfeit money in Heilongjiang?
Immediately, some people raised this unrealistic. The temperature in Heilongjiang is too low, which is not suitable for the operation of the printing press at all, and it is not conducive to the storage of paper.
Moreover, paper and equipment must be purchased from Shenzhen and transported thousands of miles to Heilongjiang.
In this way, the cost is too high.
Even if there is enough money, who can guarantee the safety of transportation?
In any case, the police believe that this is simply impossible.
However, the truth is always unexpected. For Zheng and others, the sword seems to be a good choice.
The police said that there have never been counterfeit currency manufacturing cases in Heilongjiang, and the crackdown is small, coupled with the lack of experience of the local police, it is easy to give criminals an opportunity.
Counterfeit money on site
Compared with Shenzhen, the police have rich experience in handling cases, and there is a complete system for cracking down on counterfeit currency crimes.
If Zheng mou produces counterfeit money in Shenzhen and then packages it and sells it, it is almost impossible.
In this way, Liu and Fan went to Heilongjiang before should be the site of inspection.
Li and Wang came to Guangdong to tell Liu and Fan that the location of the den had been determined.
The next step is to buy equipment and raw materials and send them safely to the dens.
Liu mou worked in a printing factory before and knew many skilled workers.
He found Lu and put him in charge of purchasing printing equipment, including printing presses and baking machines.
Because the printing press is a relatively heavy fund, the police found that on the 5th of the following month, Lu spent 700,000 yuan to buy two printing presses.
Subsequently, ink and other consumables were purchased in Shantou.
In addition to this, they also buy raw materials to make "white oil".
Counterfeit money printing presses
Police explained that smearing white oil on the left margin of the renminbi would make it look closer to the renminbi.
Based on the number of their purchases, the police estimated the amount to be as high as $800 million.
All kinds of signs show that Zheng and others want to create counterfeit money.
Due to the large geographical span, the large number of people involved in the case, and the high amount of transactions, the Guangdong police reported the case to the Ministry of Public Security.
Assemble police forces and deploy operations
On December 9 of the same year, the Ministry of Public Security convened the police of the two places to set up a 12.9 joint task force, which is bound to arrest all criminals.
Heilongjiang police are responsible for finding dens where counterfeit money is printed.
The Guangdong police are responsible for confirming the specific time when printing equipment and paper will be transported to Heilongjiang.
Without further ado, the police in both places are actively engaged.
The Heilongjiang police went all the way down the vine to the vicinity of Tan's building materials factory. With cameras all around, the police can only observe from a distance. Thus, there is the opening scene.
With the help of drones, the police found that Tan's decoration structure was particularly unique.
The windows on all sides were blocked by planks, and there was only one door to enter and exit.
The outermost large iron door is often locked with large iron chains. Just go in from the outside and you can observe it inside.
The police were worried about hitting the grass and snakes, and did not stay long.
Rural junction
As mentioned earlier, this is surrounded by shantytowns, and there are basically no people moving around.
Due to the large number of factories, Tan's house is not conspicuous at all and is very hidden.
The police also found that the electricity here is very abundant, which exactly meets the needs of printing equipment to use three-phase electricity.
It is also close to the highway intersection, and the transportation is convenient.
If Zheng and others set up the den of counterfeit money here, it can be said that there is no harm in the hundred benefits.
In Guangdong, the police investigation work is also in full swing.
On the 17th of the same month, two printing equipment ordered by Lu arrived at the Longgang warehouse in Shenzhen. On the second day, ink and other consumables were also delivered as scheduled, but no trace of paper was seen.
To make counterfeit money, paper is obviously indispensable. Just when the police were planning to re-investigate, there was a movement at Fan's waste collection station.
On the 19th of the same month, at a nearby commanding height, police saw more than 20 cardboard boxes neatly lined up in the courtyard of the acquisition station.
The police were a little confused, which was obviously more than they had expected.
Cardboard boxes containing counterfeit currency
At about 3 p.m., a large truck with a Heilongjiang license plate entered the acquisition station and came out at 9 p.m.
During the period, the police found that the transport destination of the truck was in the Mudanjiang Logistics Park, and the signatory was Li Mou of Heilongjiang.
The police judged that Li should be the leader of the Heilongjiang side.
Therefore, more people were sent to pay attention to her every move.
The Guangdong police immediately reported the news to the Heilongjiang police so that they could arrange personnel tracking in advance.
Four days later, the printing equipment was also loaded into a truck and drove to Mudanjiang. The Heilongjiang police, who received the news, squatted in the logistics park early. I held it for several days, but I didn't see the big truck for a long time.
Is it difficult for the criminals to perceive something?
At this time, the Guangdong police also came from thousands of miles away to assist the local police in jointly solving the case.
Epidemic prevention and control
However, the sudden outbreak of an epidemic has added a lot of difficulties to the case-handling personnel, and even travel is inconvenient.
The police have some concerns in case criminals delay operations or change locations because of the epidemic.
Once this is the case, all the previous efforts will be wasted.
At the end of December 2019, the police in Xinle Village sent news that the original printing equipment had not entered the logistics park and was directly sent to the factory.
However, the paper is still missing.
Logically, paper should arrive in Heilongjiang earlier than the equipment.
The police of the two places divided their work and cooperated, and began to check trucks and vehicles around Xinle Village.
On January 5, 2020, a large truck carrying paper appeared in Wang's hometown Xinmin Village, which is only a dozen kilometers away from Xinle Village.
The police rushed to the place and found that it was mixed with ATM cabinets.
Police speculated that it was to avoid intersection inspections, which also explained the excessive doubts of the previous cardboard boxes.
ATM cabinets
As early as two days ago, Liu Mou entered the factory with 5 technicians and did not go out since then.
The police deduced that now that the people, equipment, and materials are all prepared, the counterfeit currency manufacturing business of Zheng and others is about to begin.
However, there is one other thing that is crucial, and that is the offset version of the banknotes.
Offset plate is the use of electronic color separation technology, the paper money is divided layer by layer.
The quality of the offset directly determines the quality of the banknote. For 100 yuan banknotes, at least more than 20 offset plates are required.
However, for Zheng, it is not difficult to get a good set of offset plates.
Due to the epidemic prevention and control, the policy of "not going out and not moving" has been implemented in all villages and localities, and the tracking of the police has become difficult to implement.
This gives criminals a good opportunity to commit crimes.
Counterfeit offset
Coordinated implementation, none of them have been arrested
The situation is grave and the task force has convened an emergency meeting. The final decision was made: to catch the counterfeit money halfway through production.
Why did the police choose this time?
The police said: If the counterfeit currency has not yet been produced, it is only an attempted crime. Therefore, when the counterfeit money is produced to a certain amount, it can really cut the grass and remove the roots.
Zheng Mou and others have everything in place, and only owe The East Wind. As soon as the equipment is debugged, counterfeit money printing can begin.
The Guangdong police deduced that debugging the equipment plus proofing would take almost 8 to 10 days.
In the end, the police set the time for closing the net around mid-February 2020.
For more than 40 days, the police in both places held their breath and lay dormant in the shadows, waiting for the opportunity.
Transformer housing
Finally, in early February, the police found that Li had purchased a large number of transformer shells.
After consultation, the most valuable thing about the transformer housing is the movement inside.
Without it, it's no different from an empty shell. Police speculated that Li bought the transformer to hide the paper money.
Combined with the carton purchased by Tan and the vehicle pass, everything proves that their counterfeit currency production is complete and ready to be sold.
In mid-February of the same year, Fan Mou, who was in Guangdong, sent Li a batch of raw materials for making "white oil".
The application of white oil is the last step in the production of counterfeit money. This made the police more certain that the production of counterfeit money by Zheng and others was about halfway through.
Seizure of counterfeit currency
The Ministry of Public Security summoned more than 400 police forces from Guangdong and Heilongjiang to participate in the arrest operation.
At 4:00 a.m. on February 7 of the same year, Heilongjiang police gathered at the entrance of Xinle Village. Four squads blocked the intersection, two teams of special police rushed into the factory, and Liu and 7 other people were all arrested.
Other localities have taken action, and none of the people involved have escaped. After counting, a total of 422 million yuan of counterfeit money and 6 tons of paper were seized.
Counterfeit paper
It is conceivable that if these counterfeit coins flow into the market, they will have an irreparable impact on the mainland economy.
Fortunately, the mainland police did not lose their vigilance, boldly assumed, carefully sought verification, and gradually brought the criminals to justice.
This is the largest case of counterfeit currency since the founding of New China.
The police of the two places broke through geographical restrictions, worked together to overcome the epidemic, and did not give up investigating the case on the occasion of the New Year, and now ushered in a gratifying result.
Police also extracted fingerprints from suspects on printing presses to provide strong evidence for interrogation.
In the police station, the main officer Zheng confessed to the facts of the crime, and other criminal personnel also confessed to the crime one by one.
Zheng Mou and others knew that the law was broken, the crime was unforgivable, took the country's market to satisfy their own selfish desires, ignored the bottom line of the law, and received due punishment.
I hope that they will truly repent in prison and make a living in a down-to-earth manner in the future.
The law is the lowest bottom line that binds people's morality. I hope that we can all know the law and abide by the law, and do not know the law and break the law, otherwise the final outcome will only be self-inflicted evil consequences.
Edit: A Feng Duck
Editor-in-Charge: Thalia