27 sentenced for mafia-style crime in NW China

Twenty-seven people in northwest China's Shaanxi Province were sentenced to prison for terms up to life for involvement in a mafia-style gang, a local court said.

The leader of the gang Zhu Qunyang carried out a series of criminal activities, operating casinos and contracting construction projects from 2004 to 2013, and was given a life sentence, according to the intermediate people's court of Xi'an city.

Another 25 gang members were handed jail terms ranging from 33 months to 20 years, and one more was put under surveillance for two years.

The court found members of the gang had committed a series of crimes, including four cases of assault causing serious injuries to two people and minor injuries to seven, 11 provocation cases causing enormous losses, three robberies with illegal gains of over 370,000 yuan (55,900 U.S. dollars), three unlawful detentions, one extortion and the destruction of 0.85 hectares of farmland.