Family-led criminal group

03 FAMILY-LED CRIMINAL GROUP

Family was an important aspect used by the Chen OCG to control the illicit activities and keep the business tight. It is suggested that a familyoriented approach was used to reduce the risk of leaks, disloyalty, and cheating.

The network was led by the Chen family, with the father Chen Jiancheng as the leader, and his two sons Chen Chengguang (older son) and Chen Chengzong (younger son) as co-leaders. The involvement of multiple generations of the same family is a structural characteristic typical of many traditional organised crime groups, which can enable long-running operations. Such networks are often set up with a view to operating beyond the lifetime of individual members, with criminal succession from one generation to the next.

Female family members had important roles in collecting and managing payments on behalf of the network. Chen Yanfang was the unregistered spouse14 of Chen Chengzong and assisted with record keeping and collection of payments. Chen Yanfang’s mother (Zhuang XX)15 also assisted with transferring payments from the sale of products through her bank account, while her father (Chen Qingshui) assisted with storing ivory at his house in Shanting Town, Putian city, Fujian province.

Family connections were also prominent in the sourcing and packing of ivory in Nigeria. Chen Chengzong’s cousin (Wang Qingshan) had helped with sourcing ivory in Africa since 2014, and Chen Yanfang’s cousin (Zhuang Jiawei) went to Africa to assist in March 2017. Hu Juqiang, a senior ivory buyer who had been resident in Africa for a long time, was not a family connection but was from the same hometown as the Chen family in Shanting Town.

It was reported that although Lin Zhiyong, Lin Jianfeng and Lin Yangshan were all from the same village in Xianyou county, Fujian province, they were not relatives. It is not known if this is correct or not. The three Lins were all involved in selling the ivory to buyers in China.

A prosecutor who handled the case reportedly remarked that due to the strong family characteristics of the criminal network, most suspects refused to confess after they were arrested. This required the ASB to strengthen the collection of objective evidence and establish chain of custody in order to effectively prosecute the defendants.16

14 An unregistered spouse in China is a couple who are not legally married. For ease of reference in this report, the Wildlife Justice Commission has used the term “girlfriend” to refer to Chen Yanfang’s relationship to Chen Chengzong. 15 First name was redacted in this case. 16 https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20210408A04N8H00

Key finding 3

The Chen OCG was centred on a family-oriented approach to reduce the risks of leaks, disloyalty, and cheating, while also minimising the risk of a network member becoming an informant for law enforcement should detection occur. This structure is consistently seen in other forms of serious organised crime.