Shandong Police Bust Cross-Province Extortion Ring Laundering Funds via Crypto

Cointime update: Police in Dezhou, Shandong province, have broken up a cross-province online extortion ring that posed as environmental inspectors and journalists, using drones to film livestock farms and then charging farmers to remove negative videos. The group collected payments through QR codes and third-party payment platforms, which settled with money-laundering gangs in cryptocurrency. Police said the gang committed 268 offenses across 22 cities in five provinces in two months, involving over 800,000 yuan; 23 people were arrested and over 2 million yuan in assets seized or frozen.