268 cases involved: Dezhou, Shandong police bust cross-provincial online extortion ring

Odaily reports: Police in Dezhou, Shandong, China have busted a cross-provincial online extortion case. The criminal gang impersonated environmental protection inspectors and journalists, using drones to film farms and publishing negative videos to induce farmers to pay for post deletions; the gang collected funds through payment QR codes and third-party payment platforms, which then settled with money-laundering groups using virtual currencies. Police said the gang committed 268 offenses across 22 cities in five provinces—Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu, and Anhui—within two months, involving more than 800,000 yuan. Police have arrested 23 people and seized, impounded, and frozen more than 2 million yuan in assets involved in the case.