Investigation on the case of hunting giant pandas： there is no terminal market for giant panda skins at all.
Topic: picture channel
Data map: Giant Panda China News Agency issued a photo by Jidong
The mountains present a desolate scene. It was strangely quiet around, and a natural and peaceful atmosphere hung over the valley. In the silent forest, Li Qijun, a 32-year-old farmer, concentrated on finding traces of his prey.
At dawn, he got up, took a single-barrel shotgun, backpack, plastic woven bag and fruit knife about 1 meter long, and went up the mountain alone. At this point, he had walked for more than two hours, but found nothing.
Halfway up a mountain, he saw a petite baby panda through the gap in the bamboo forest. In the warm sunshine, it chews bamboo like no one’s watching, and sometimes holds its head high and looks at the world around it.
With a bang, the panda was shot in one of its hind legs. It struggled to run a short distance, and then it was shot in the abdomen by the second shot. This baby panda, only 9 months old, instantly fell in a pool of blood.
Li Qijun took out the fruit knife he carried with him and quickly peeled off the whole panda skin and put it into a plastic woven bag. The bones and meat of the panda were abandoned in the same place. Walking in the direction of going home for an hour, he soaked the panda skin in a cold stream. The flowing water can not only keep it fresh, but also make it difficult to give off the smell.
It was four or five o’clock in the afternoon when I returned home. That night, Li Qijun called a man named Hu Hongqiang to tell all this, and the two of them excitedly discussed the next plan. They thought that the dream of making money for a long time would come true soon.
Who can get the panda skin?
Hu Hongqiang and Li Qijun are three years old. Although they are not fellow villagers, the two families are only a few miles apart and have been playing together since childhood. In the mouth of family and folks, both of them are "honest people".
Hu Hongqiang’s brother, Hu Hongwu, remembers that for a while, they didn’t have much contact. But since Hu Hongqiang met a man named "Gan Hailong", he and Li Qijun have frequent contacts again. Hu Hongwu can often hear his younger brother who lives next door answering Li Qijun’s phone in the middle of the night.
Hu Hongqiang met Gan Hailong through a man named "Old Man Peng". One day in 2004, Peng Ruyi, a farmer from Longdong Town, Baoxing County, Ya ‘an City, Sichuan Province, was about to go home after seeing the illness from the orthopedic hospital in the neighboring county. While waiting for the bus, he saw a man of similar age waving to him upstairs in the station hotel, and then the man greeted him with a big smile: "Come up and have a cup of boiled water."
Old man Peng felt that he had nothing to do anyway, so he happily went upstairs to "drink a cup of boiled water." The man upstairs claimed to be Gao, and said that he wanted to do some business in Baoxing County recently, and he hoped to stay at Peng’s house for a few days. Old man Peng has always been hospitable, so he left his home address and phone number to old man Gao. A few days later, the old man Gao went to live in Peng’s house.
The skinny Peng Ruyi pointed to the second floor of his home and mysteriously told the reporter: "That’s the one, with a woman!"
He recalled that at the beginning, the old man Gao only said that he had come to buy medicinal materials. Slowly, he expressed interest in black bear skin, and then he asked Peng if anyone could get giant panda skin.
Peng promised to help inquire. Soon, the old man Gao brought another man named Gan Hailong. Gan introduced himself that he was in his early 50 s and worked for a Japanese boss who opened a factory in Chongqing. Lao Gao and Lao Gan lived together in Peng Jia, and quietly inquired during the day in Longdong, Wulong and Yongfu areas of Baoxing County.
Baoxing County, formerly known as Muping, is located in the transition zone between Sichuan Basin and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Alpine meadows, steep mountains and subtropical climate provide a favorable environment for wildlife habitat. In ancient times, it was the settlement of the Qiang people in Tsing Yi. Before 1930s, it was the jurisdiction of Tibetan Tusi. In 1869, French priest David discovered a new animal species in Dengjiagou, Baoxing County. This black and white fat guy was named "panda".
Today, this wedge-shaped land embedded between Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture and Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan is locked as the core protected area of giant pandas. According to the results of the third national survey of giant pandas from 1999 to 2003, there are 143 giant pandas in Baoxing County, ranking the top three among the counties and cities with giant pandas in China.
However, Baoxing County has always been relatively poor, and its resources mainly include "three heads": wood (wood), water head (hydropower) and stone (building materials). Baoxing people used to live by cutting down trees. After the natural forest was banned in 1998, the county began to develop hydropower and stone industry by taking advantage of the gap between mountains and valleys. However, there are still not many ways for farmers to find a way out. Usually, they plant some corn, potatoes and konjac on steep slopes to make a living.
Hu Hongqiang is the third in the family, known as "Hu Sanwa". Since 2000, he has started to open a motorcycle in the village. At the end of the day, you can earn tens of dollars. Husband and wife, two children and parents in their 60s, a family of six all live on this income.
One day, old man Peng wanted to go somewhere and called a "motorcycle". The owner happened to be Hu Hongqiang. On the way, old man Peng and Hu Hongqiang talked about someone who wanted to make panda skins. The speaker is interested, the listener is intentional, and Hu Hongqiang expressed interest. Peng laotou then helped Gao laotou and Hu hongjiang connect the line.
Gao Laotou told Hu Hongqiang that it was not him who wanted to buy panda skin, but someone else. So under the introduction of Gao, Hu Hongqiang met Gan Hailong at Peng’s home for the first time. Old man Peng remembers that Hu Hongqiang once said to Gan Hailong, "It’s easy to get panda skins. Find some pig and sheep bones to burn. The giant pandas will come when they smell the smell."
Gan Hailong immediately said: as long as there is panda skin, the big boss in Japan can pay a high price, and the big boss is very capable. After the factory he opened made a lot of money, he has settled the Chongqing police. As long as he delivers it to Chongqing, there will definitely be no risk.
After meeting with Gan Hailong, Hu Hongqiang let Gan live in his home for more than 20 days. During this period, he took advantage of the opportunity of driving a motorcycle and asked around who could get the panda skin. One day, a man named Feng Xiangyun claimed that he had the goods, but he had to pay a deposit of 50,000 yuan first. After some lobbying by Hu Hongqiang, Feng Xiangyun agreed to pay only 10,000 yuan to see the goods. Gan Hailong agreed to give money, but let Hu Hongqiang write an IOU, and the IOU must be written as 15,000 yuan.
Hu Hongqiang gave 10,000 yuan to Feng Xiangyun. After Feng took the money, he "played missing". Later, Gan Hailong left. One day, Hu Hongqiang’s wife Dong Moumou received a phone call from Gan Hailong.
"He said on the phone that if he didn’t get the money, he would kill our family." The 36-year-old rural woman shivered with memories.
Hu Hongqiang later thought of Li Qijun. Because the village where Li lives has a tradition of hunting, his father is also a famous local hunter. After several contacts, Li Qijun accepted the deal.
June 5th, 2007 is the "World Environment Day", and countless people are worried about global warming. On June 6th, Li Qijun shot and killed the giant panda.
Who directed all this?
Like thousands of local ravines, Li Qijun hides the red ravine with giant panda skin, hidden in the lush mountains.
On the second day after hitting the giant panda, Li Qijun took Hu Hongqiang to the stream where the giant panda skin was hidden. After reading it, Li Qijun was afraid that Hu Hongqiang would steal the panda skin, and went up the mountain again to hide it in a different place.
After returning home, Hu Hongqiang quickly called Gan Hailong to report "good news" and agreed to meet in Rongchang County, Chongqing. On June 12th, Hu Hongqiang met Gan Hailong and "Japanese boss’s translator" in a hotel near Rongchang County Bus Station. The three agreed that the transaction price was 500,000 yuan and the delivery date was June 14th.
Li Qijun asked to go to Rongchang with Hu Hongqiang. The two rented a minivan and set off at noon on June 15th. Li Qijun also called his girlfriend Zhang Ruiying and only told her to go to Chongqing to play. Before going out, Hu Hongqiang borrowed 500 yuan from his relatives and told his wife that he was delayed in Baoxing that night and would not go home.
At about 2 am on June 16th, Hu Hongqiang and his party arrived in Rongchang County, stayed at Hongyu Hotel not far from the bus station, stuffed the goods under the bed, and then contacted Gan Hailong.
Gan Hailong came to inspect the goods with "the translator of the Japanese boss". When Hu Hongqiang dragged the giant panda skin out from under the bed and just presented it to the buyer, suddenly, a group of policemen broke in from outside the door. Li Qijun and Hu Hongqiang were quickly handcuffed and sent to Rongchang County Detention Center. Two months later, Li and Hu were sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for selling and transporting precious wild animals, and each was fined 20,000 yuan.
However, a detail when Li and Hu were arrested caught Zhang Ruiying’s attention.
At that time, she was sleeping in the next room After hearing the noise, she found that both Li Qijun and Hu Hongqiang were handcuffed. She was stunned.
"I quickly asked the police what was going on?" Zhang Ruiying recalled afterwards. At that time, a policeman named Tang Jun told her what had happened, questioned her and let her go.
"At that time, there was a man with a moustache squatting on the ground without handcuffs." Careful Zhang Ruiying felt embarrassed. "Later, a car with Hu Hongqiang and Li Qijun drove east, and a man with a moustache drove west."
Zhang Ruiying returned to Baoxing County overnight. She learned about Gan Hailong from Hu’s family. According to Hu Jia’s description of Gan Hailong’s characteristics, it is exactly the same as the "moustache" she saw in Rongchang.
"Intuitively, I suspect that this Gan Hailong is a liar." So she searched the internet for relevant information.
From the online news reports, she found many "clues" that were hardly noticed in the past. Several cases of panda skin trafficking uncovered by Chongqing Rongchang police in recent years are all related to this Gan Hailong: in the case of Gou Chengxue and Yang Shicheng, which were uncovered in 2002, the freight car was seized by the well-prepared police just after leaving the Sangjiapo toll station of Chengdu-Chongqing Expressway; At the end of 2003, three people, including Gao Jiaru in Yucheng District, Ya ‘an City, were sold by Gan and others for 1.1 million yuan for two panda skins, and were also arrested at the Sangjiapo toll station of Chengdu-Chongqing Expressway. However, after investigation, they were fake panda skins.
What surprised Zhang Ruiying even more was this news: Two years ago, Sun Shiqun, a 16-year-old woman from Yingjing County, Ya ‘an, Sichuan Province, brought a fake panda skin to Chongqing for sale, and Rongchang police disguised as a buyer to connect with it. However, after investigation, the skin was counterfeit, and the police kept quiet and gave up the sale and let it go. In February this year, the old woman finally came to Chongqing again with the real panda skin, and was caught by the police. This case is also related to people named Gan.
"From 2001 to now, Chongqing has investigated four cases of Ya ‘an people hunting and selling giant panda skins, with a total of five skins. The hunting place is in Ya ‘an, Sichuan, but the solving place is in Rongchang, Chongqing. Up to now, none of the criminals who bought panda skins have been arrested and none have been sentenced. How to explain this? " Zhang Ruiying asked puzzled.
She went to Yingjing County, where Sun Shiqun was located, and finally found her daughter Xiong Yilian. She found that Xiong Yilian was also suspicious of Gan Hailong. According to Xiong Yilian’s memory, Gan Hailong once lived in her house for more than a month, and cheated Sun Shiqun of more than 10,000 yuan in the name of helping to buy konjac seeds.
Xiong Yilian’s leg is a little lame because of polio. She and her mother live together and make a living by wholesale mingbi. As early as two years ago, Xiong Yilian felt that Gan Hailong had an evil intention and reminded his mother many times.
"My mother’s brain is not good," she said with tears in her eyes. "She can’t even count. When someone comes to buy something when I’m not at home, she asks the other person to write down the number of purchases on paper and ask for money when I come back."
According to Xiong Yilian’s memory, because her disability was the most worrying thing for her mother Sun Shiqun, Gan promised: "After the job is done, she will be sent to Chongqing Grand Hospital to cure the disease."
"Is it Gan Hailong or even Rongchang police who directed all this behind the scenes?" Two women in the same boat can’t even believe such a guess.
After Li Qijun’s original wife died, she left a child. After being introduced, after he met Zhang Ruiying, the two sides had a good impression. They originally planned to get married and prepare to start a new life. Sun Shiqun, a 60-year-old woman, wondered if there was any chance to return to her disabled daughter who lived alone …
After much consideration, Zhang Ruiying became more and more convinced that his judgment was not groundless. In a letter to "National People’s Congress, State Forestry Administration, Provincial People’s Congress, Provincial Forestry Department and Baoxing County People’s Congress", she pointed out bluntly: "The forestry public security bureau of Rongchang County, Chongqing, which handled the case, put informants at the weaknesses of farmers in mountainous areas, such as simplicity, poverty and weak legal awareness, and used money to induce local farmers to hunt and sell giant panda skins."
"They are the poorest, the most ignorant, the most desperate, and the most easily deceived people," said Zhang Ruiying. "For the poor people whose income is only a few thousand yuan a year, what is the temptation for informants to pay hundreds of thousands or millions of yuan?"