A Chinese drug trafficking syndicate known as “Bang de Fujian” has been growing high-tech indoor marijuana in Chile since at least 2020, as confirmed by multiple news outlets in the country citing the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI). building the empire. .
News of drug lords establishing a base in the South American country from across the planet follows growing concerns about crime in the country as a whole, which began after left-wing rebels began burning churches in the capital, stopping public cars and historic sites. santiago , 2019. While rioters said they were protesting a proposed wage increase in the capital, a local councilor suggested to Breitbart New that unknown criminal elements were offering people food, alcohol and drugs in exchange for engaging in violence and destruction, which is a level. organizing beyond mass protests.
A report by the Chilevisión network on Tuesday showed footage of large, secret cannabis growing centers using special equipment to grow plants without sunlight in the dim spots that law enforcement suspects. Bang de Fujian, named after a southeastern province across the sea from Taiwan, was reportedly driven by a woman whom police say has yet to be named, but the suspect may not be in Chile.
PDI’s narcotics unit first arrested four people linked to the union in 2020, building a case that gradually exposed a major transcontinental operation. In particular, the Fujian-based team reportedly did their best not to attract attention – to sell in small quantities, avoid large purchases in Chile, and not engage in any major acts of violence.
Marcelo Atala, head of drug trafficking investigations, told Chilevision that the cannabis growing facilities used by the group were also less conspicuous. In an online statement, it said it was “specially air-conditioned to resemble a warehouse where crates of goods are stored.”
The first arrest of anyone linked to Bang de Fujian reportedly took place in 2020. The possible involvement of a Chinese citizen “got our attention, so we started examining some activities to determine what this was all about,” Atala said.
Chilevisión said that prior to the investigations that uncovered the main operations in Chile, Bang de Fujian was active in Spain, maintaining 13 marijuana breeding facilities that also serve as centers for human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
In Chile, gang members tried to cover up their operations by pretending to be legitimate business owners.
“They are not linked to acts of violence, but rather stay in the business world,” Prosecutor Jans Escobar told La Tercera in Chile last week. “They tend to maintain a vicious circle and in some cases have established businesses like importers.”
The group apparently grew the drugs in Chile, but did not ship them from abroad.
The report stated that police believed the group’s leaders were in China, but did not specify whether the Communist Party was cooperating with Chilean law enforcement. Chile signed an extradition treaty with China in 2018.
The partial police shutdown, before the ringleaders of Bang de Fujian have yet to be caught, is a major victory for law enforcement in the face of the rampant rise in crimes, particularly violent crimes such as robbery, car theft and other assaults. The situation has become so serious that two separate violent robberies took place on live television last week. In one case, a guest interviewed on Zoom – in broad daylight, in the middle of a public street – had his phone stolen and beaten by five attackers. In another incident, a cameraman was beaten and mugged while filming a reporter making a daytime street report on the strength of the US dollar.
Boric has repeatedly urged criminals to end criminal activity and said he would demand a “complete ban” of private gun ownership in the country. Boric had called for an international gun ban during his visit to Canada in June.
“We must promote international law. “I hope there will be awareness that gun ownership at our borders is bad for society,” he said.
The discovery of Chinese drug traffickers organizing in the country comes after several Chilean presidents have sought closer economic and political ties in China for years by shifting ideologies from the left to the socialist and “center right”. Chile is a member of the China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) global infrastructure debt trap scheme and has relied heavily on China for ineffective coronavirus vaccines that have caused major outbreaks after citizens who thought China were protected by vaccines continued to meet each other. Chinese media enthusiastically celebrated the election of incumbent far-left President Gabriel Boric last year, and Boric took no steps to stop China’s massive investment in copper mines and other major industries in the country.
The two presidents before Boric, socialist Michelle Bachelet and centre-right Sebastian Piñera, spent a lot of time and energy building Chinese influence in Chile.
“We want to make Chile a real business center for Chinese companies. So you can go from Chile to all of Latin America,” he said.
Bachelet, who signed major trade deals with China during Piñera’s tenure before her last contract, is currently the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this capacity, he traveled to China in May to ostensibly investigate the Communist Party’s well-documented genocide of Muslim ethnic groups in the country. Rather than condemning the genocide, Bachelet praised communist dictator Xi Jinping for making so-called “tremendous” progress in China’s human rights and argued that the concentration camps built by Xi, believed to have housed close to 3 million people at its peak, were liquid.
The UN had not released an official report on his visit as of press time, and Bachelet announced that she would not seek a second term after her performance was internationally condemned.
Source: Breitbart
