Shandong police in China bust cross-province online extortion ring, involving 268 cases including virtual currency money laundering.

BlockBeats news, November 11: Police in Dezhou, Shandong Province, China, have busted a cross-provincial online extortion case. A criminal gang impersonated environmental inspection personnel and journalists, using drones to film livestock farms and release negative videos, inducing farmers to pay to have posts deleted.

The gang collected funds through payment QR codes and third-party payment platforms, which then settled with money-laundering gangs using virtual currencies. Police said the gang committed 268 crimes in 22 cities across 5 provinces—Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu, and Anhui—within two months, involving over 800,000 yuan. A total of 23 people have been arrested, and over 2 million yuan in assets involved in the case have been seized, impounded, and frozen. (Dazhong Daily)