Chapter 82

Deputy Secretary Cui went to the county party committee to handle some matters related to the police station.

As the deputy secretary of the party committee responsible for party building, he had to submit the next year's party member development plan to the higher-level party committee in November. The higher-level party committee would approve it around the Spring Festival, and then the plan would be strictly followed.

The number of new party members could only be less, not more. Those not included in the previous year's plan should not be developed in the current year.

The bride's idea to join the party came at just the right time. If it had been a few days later, they would have had to wait until the end of the following year to be listed as active members.

Developing new party members is a very serious matter, and no step in the process can be skipped. To make them probationary party members before the next year's civil service examination, every minute counted.

Fortunately, the township party committee supported the idea. The application was submitted last night, and early this morning, Old Lu convened a meeting of the township party committee members who were in town to approve the establishment of the party branch. Deputy Secretary Cui was on his way and was directly invited to the police station to announce the township party committee's decision, convene a branch party member meeting, and elect the branch committee.

Including Old Wang and Old Mi, all five party members of the joint defense team were present.

Special cases required special handling. From now on, their party membership would be transferred from their respective village party branches to the police station party branch. The "Party Membership Transfer Letter" and "Party Membership Information Form" and other procedures would be completed by 5 PM the next day. Since they were not being transferred to the county or other townships, but still within Liangzhuang, it wasn't very complicated.

Deputy Secretary Cui attended the branch party member meeting, and the organizational intentions were fully implemented.

Han Bo was elected as the party branch secretary, Old Wang as the organizational committee member, Gao Yali as the publicity committee member, Mi Jinlong as the confidentiality committee member, and Xiao Dan as the youth committee member (equivalent to the head of the police station's youth league).

According to the procedures, the results of the branch party member meeting, the election results of the branch committee, and the division of labor among the committee members had to be reported to the higher-level party committee for approval. Deputy Secretary Cui, representing the higher-level party organization, reviewed the materials prepared by Xiao Gao, made the final decision, and announced the official establishment of the police station party branch.

Everything was handled in one go, without any delay.

Three party membership applications were reviewed, and three active members were determined. Gao Yali, Old Wang, Old Mi, and Xiao Dan were designated as the cultivation contacts for the three active members.

Wang Yan, An Xiaoyong, and Chen Meng were officially listed as candidates for observation. Although they were not party members and thus not eligible to attend the meeting, they were more excited than those who did attend. In a sense, this party branch was established for them.

The canteen provided extra food for a celebration.

After dinner, Deputy Secretary Cui was seen off, and the meeting continued. It was no longer a party organization meeting but a case analysis meeting.

"Among the six suspects, Zhang Peng can be basically ruled out. Investigations revealed that on the night of the incident, he went to a relative's house in Lizhuang for a wedding banquet, got drunk, and stayed overnight at his relative's house. He only sobered up the next morning and returned home after lunch."

The fish pond theft case in Hongqi Village was handled by Xiao Dan. He removed Zhang Peng's photo from the whiteboard and pointed to the second suspect, reporting, "Cai Qingfeng is a major suspect. According to the public, he often secretly goes to others' fish ponds to fish. He has a fish spear, fishing nets, and an electric fishing device, and a small cement boat. He has two cage nets in the traffic river of the third group of Hongqi Village."

"He doesn't do any real work, spending his days fishing, catching eels, turtles, and frogs. His hands are not clean, often moving fish from wild rivers to others' fish ponds. He walks around at night, stealing melons from melon fields and picking a whole basket of fruit from pear or peach trees. He is notorious in the area around Hongqi Village. Moreover, on the morning after the incident, a villager saw his wife cleaning fish by the river."

Wang Yan flipped through a document and added, "He has a history of stealing fish and was dealt with by Special Envoy Li. In March 1994, he was detained for two months."

Detention meant that there was no evidence of his criminal activities.

Upon reflection, the power of the public security organs was indeed great. As long as a police officer filled out a detention recommendation form and it was signed by the police station chief and a leader at the division level or above, a suspect could be detained for three months, with two possible extensions, totaling up to nine months. This detention did not require any evidence, only a reason such as "According to public reports, someone has been wandering around at night, appearing wealthy, and is suspected of theft or robbery."

However, that was in the past. In March of this year, the Criminal Procedure Law was revised, incorporating detention conditions into the arrest measures and explicitly prohibiting the use of detention. In judicial practice, it has been completely abolished.

For the case-handling units, especially the criminal investigation team, it was very difficult to get a court to sentence a thief to six months in prison. The case had to be reviewed by the procuratorate, which would approve the arrest. The procuratorate would then supplement the materials and file a public prosecution with the court, which would finally hear and announce the verdict. Often, due to insufficient evidence or minor circumstances, the procuratorate would announce that the suspect would not be arrested, or the court would announce that the suspect would not be prosecuted.

With the abolition of detention, labor re-education could be used. It was relatively easy to send an offender to labor re-education for two years, which only required approval from the city bureau's labor re-education committee.

The impact of taking the lawyer qualification exam was significant, and in his fragmented dreams, labor re-education would also be abolished. Han Bo did not want to handle cases with flaws. If there was doubt, the suspect should not be convicted. If there was evidence, the suspect should be brought to court. If there was no evidence, it should be collected. If it could not be collected, the suspect should be closely monitored.

"What about the third suspect?"

"Li Gu, 25 years old, nicknamed 'Thief Monkey,' lives in the third group of Hongqi Village. His sister is married in Liangdong Village, and her husband runs a small store. Li Gu often stays at his sister's house, committing minor offenses but not major ones, and spends his days idly. On the morning after the incident, a villager saw him selling fish at the market entrance. He refused to pay the market management fee and got into an argument with the market management staff, which has been confirmed."

Xiao Dan removed the photo and said with a bitter smile, "Investigations confirmed that the fish he sold were all small and miscellaneous, not artificially farmed carp or grass carp, and the quantity was small, only about thirty pounds in a small bucket. His involvement can be basically ruled out."

Zhou Zhengfa, the director of the Comprehensive Governance Office, had mentioned this person and suggested dealing with him.

Han Bo turned and asked, "Has he been dealt with before?"

"He has been detained three times, and each time, it became a source of his arrogance. As Xiao Dan said, he is very cunning, committing minor offenses but not major ones, and labor re-education is not applicable. Now that detention is no longer allowed, there is little that can be done."

Wang Yan felt helpless, and Chen Meng secretly thought that it wasn't that they couldn't handle a small thug, but that the special envoy was cautious and did not want to use extreme measures.

The remaining suspects all had some suspicion, but there was no solid evidence.

The office conditions were good, but the case-handling conditions were not. There were no professional criminal investigators, especially a lack of technical means. If footprints could have been taken and compared through technical identification to determine whose fishing nets they were, the case would not have been difficult to solve.

Without the necessary conditions, they had to create them, but this was not something that could be done in a day or two.

There was no choice but to put the case on hold. The jurisdiction was large, and it was impossible to focus all their energy on the theft of a few hundred pounds of fish. They would wait for new leads in the future.

In comparison, the human trafficking case had made significant progress.

An Xiaoyong said excitedly, "Chen Yuehong is the intermediary and profits from it. She goes from village to village, helping bachelors in each village find wives. To continue this business, she installed a telephone at the end of last year. She contacts buyers and then uses the phone to contact the traffickers. It has been confirmed that at least three women have been sold in our township, one in Dinghu and two in Liuxia, including a minor. The circumstances are severe, and she could be sentenced to death!"

It was hard to believe that a woman who had been trafficked five years ago was now involved in trafficking.

After reviewing the materials, Han Bo asked quietly, "What about her husband? Was he involved?"

"Lei Taiping never went to school and is illiterate. He is honest and hardworking, and everything in the family is decided by Chen Yuehong. It is difficult to determine if he was involved, but he definitely knew about it. Every time a woman was trafficked, the buyer would throw a wedding banquet, and he would go to eat. Once, the trafficker stayed at his house and he even warmly entertained them, buying food and alcohol at the market."

He was a legal ignoramus and could not escape responsibility. This family was finished.

Han Bo sighed and said, "Phone tapping requires the necessary procedures, which are complicated and unnecessary. For now, we will monitor her closely. Starting tomorrow, the joint defense team will continue concentrated training and be on standby at the police station. As soon as the suspect completes a transaction, we will organize a raid and rescue operation. Director Wang, considering the number of people involved, we need to quickly prepare the dormitories on the west side."

It would be impossible to detain dozens of people in the detention room.

Wang Zhigang asked, "Deputy Township Head Han, should we reinforce the doors and windows?"

"Security is paramount, and reinforcement is necessary. Weld steel bars on the windows, replace all doors with anti-theft doors, and preferably open a hole in the door to observe the inside from the outside. This is temporary; we might need to house people here in the future, so we won't move the sockets, just cut off the power."

"Understood, I'll arrange it first thing tomorrow."

...

ps: Today is Thursday, tomorrow is Friday.

The editor will determine the website's recommendations for next week on Friday. The performance over the next two days is crucial. Here is the first chapter, and I request your support in terms of collection, recommendation, clicks, reviews, and suggestions!

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