National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 989 - 925: Double Route Advancement

"As far as I know, there are currently two types of cases involving trafficking women. One involves women with mental health issues, and the other involves job referrals by acquaintances," Liu Jinghui sat up a bit and his expression became slightly more serious.

Human trafficking cases are often referred to as trafficking of women and children. In earlier years, these two types of cases were quite similar, but now, the difference between trafficking women and trafficking children has grown significantly.

In addition to the rising number of cases involving trafficking foreign women, the main types of domestic trafficking cases summarized by Liu Jinghui are the former, which is common across all regions, and the latter, which varies in occurrence depending on the region.

Jiang Yuan and the others were drawn in and began to ponder. ƒreewebɳovel.com

Liu Jinghui, with his quick thinking, immediately voiced his thoughts, saying, "The victim, Chen Nuan, came to Chang Le City to work on her own. The fast-food restaurant job was hard and the living conditions were poor; everyone is constantly looking for better opportunities, so it’s natural for Chen Nuan to look for a new job. The only question is, did she find the job online, or through acquaintances from her hometown?"

Liu Jinghui continued with a self-directed question and answer, "If she was actively seeking a job, she would probably cast a wide net. For example, asking in a group chat with classmates or quickly asking multiple acquaintances one after the other. Unless there is someone reliable who can secure her a job, it is unlikely that Chen Nuan would keep her job searching activities in Chang Le City a secret."

"So, someone actively introduced a job to Chen Nuan?" Su Shanming timely joined the conversation, and quickly added, "It’s also possible that she saw an advert or proactively approached an employment agency."

Liu Jinghui nodded, looking slightly hesitant as he turned towards Jiang Yuan, "We could investigate this angle. However, if the contact was via phone and then the phone was discarded, this lead would get us nowhere."

Although phone real-name registration is mandatory, for those who premeditate trafficking, obtaining phone cards is too simple. Trying to trace a criminal through phone records might only work for unexpected homicide or crime of passion; premeditated crimes have their advantages here, and are usually punished more severely.

"Let’s look into this," Su Shanming took the initiative, "We can ask Technical Investigation for help, first tracking all the calls made by Chen Nuan. It’s best if we can trace them all back to their sources. If there are some we cannot track, then we should check with cyber-security to see if they’re scam calls or something..."

"Regarding the fight against trafficking, can we possibly use informants? Assuming what Chen Nuan encountered was a trafficking situation," Jiang Yuan had previously handled a batch of trafficking cases and had experience in investigating this matter.

Broadly speaking, trafficking women and children is never an isolated incident but rather a complete industry chain, similar to the trafficking of organs. Trafficking an individual woman or child alone is rather difficult. Typically, there are those responsible for luring, those responsible for executing control, those responsible for transportation, and those who specialize in connecting with buyers. Moreover, each level acts as a middleman, implying rapid payment and high efficiency.

Even the final buyers are not pure buyers; many will resell the purchased women several times, with cases of more than five or six transactions. The cheapest transaction recorded online involved a scavenger who traded a woman with mental issues he found to another scavenger in exchange for a tool.

In such a long transaction chain, there must be those who are aware of the operations. However, these individuals behave like they are in a local network, sharing resources and deals among themselves while being very cautious towards the outside world.

Informants, also known as insiders in Hong Kong movies, can relatively easily break through these barriers.

Su Shanming hesitated for a moment, then looked towards the head of the Criminal Police Brigade, Lang Heng. The use of informants, especially communication with external units, is tightly controlled.

Lang Heng exchanged a glance with Huang Qiangmin and then said, "I can ask around, but I can’t promise any immediate news."

"That’s possible," Jiang Yuan didn’t expect them to make any firm guarantees. He also turned to Huang Qiangmin, "I think we should contact the Guqi City Bureau; the human traffickers we previously arrested should have been tried and prosecuted by them, right? I wonder how the cases were settled."

"There have been over a dozen executions, and some are still going through the appeal process or death penalty review," Huang Qiangmin has quite a few contacts in affluent regions and is well aware of such important matters.

Jiang Yuan nodded, "Shall we contact them then? See if anyone wants to earn a reduction in their sentence?"

"That’s doable," Huang Qiangmin readily agreed, thought for a moment, and then called Gao Changjiang, head of the Guqi City Bureau, on the spot.

The directors and leaders of the Chang Le City Bureau present hadn’t even realized what was happening before Huang Qiangmin’s phone already carried the sound of a hearty but fake laugh.

Huang Qiangmin quickly explained the situation and made the request in just a few words.

On the other end, Gao Changjiang promptly agreed and said, "I’ll coordinate with the Judicial Department Prison Administration Bureau to try to find a few prisoners willing to secure a reduction in their sentence."

Life in prison is definitely not easy, just the monotonously nutritious health meals from morning till night can break a person’s spirit in a few months, not to mention the daily harsh demands and 8 hours of labor. Only those who have studied in places like Hengzhong would think life here is bearable.

Whereas ordinary criminals usually come from humble backgrounds, and they can barely endure such suffering.

Some prisoners, when first arrested, still harbored thoughts of brotherhood loyalty; some even took the blame themselves to save their accomplices. However, after staying in prison for a while, when they find their accomplices do not care about them at all, their spouse wants a divorce, or perhaps when their accomplices and spouse collude to play Cao Cao, many will undergo a 180-degree change in perspective.

According to Gao Changjiang’s experience, even if those human traffickers had been sifted through once in the past and everything possible had been said, the circumstances outside might have changed over the past couple of years, and it’s possible that the once insignificant individuals have grown up.

On the other hand, even if those human traffickers had said all they could, there’s always some information they are unwilling to discuss, and one shouldn’t expect them to reveal such on their own. Developing relationships with their fellow prisoners and head prisoners could, however, squeeze some of that information out.

As the saying goes, if you don’t want others to know, don’t do it. Many prisoners were originally just serving short terms, but ended up with life sentences, and some even reached the point where they wanted to stay in prison but couldn’t.

After discussing the details with Gao Changjiang, Huang Qiangmin hung up the phone and smiled at a few people from the Chang Le Bureau, saying, "Jiang Yuan cracked a big human trafficking case for Guqi City Bureau back in the day, and now it’s coming in handy."

"Guqi City Bureau gained quite a reputation, I remember that," the director of Chang Le Bureau remarked emotionally, his eyes shining brightly when looking at Jiang Yuan.

Huang Qiangmin laughed heartily and started discussing adult matters with the director.

Jiang Yuan tilted his head and began reviewing some key points with Liu Jinghui, Lang Heng, and Su Shanming.

...

The next day.

Jiang Yuan arrived early at the Criminal Police Brigade, only to find the hall once again bustling with activity.

He was well familiar with this process.

Half a minute after walking into the office, the even earlier arrived Wang Chuanxing came to report the situation.

"Based on intelligence, we’ve caught several kidnapping suspects active in Chang Le City," Wang Chuanxing reported first. "Criminal police from Chang Le started policing early in the morning, and by the time I came, four people had been arrested. After interrogation throughout the night... there’s still no news about Chen Nuan."

Jiang Yuan nodded, not feeling disappointed. After all, if death was involved and if it had been caused by human trafficking, participants would be tight-lipped and not easily confess.

Wang Chuanxing nodded and continued reporting, "However, these people have now implicated a few others, and operatives from Chang Le are already on their way to arrest them. We still don’t know what will turn up."

Jiang Yuan hummed in acknowledgment and asked, "What about internet security and Image Investigation?"

"We’ve drawn up a map of Chen Nuan’s last known path, but there’s nothing after 7 o’clock in the evening. It got dark, and there’s a section of the road where the cameras didn’t work, so we lost track," elaborated Wang Chuanxing.

"How about Technical Investigation? Any mobile phone signals?"

"The phone signal was also lost soon after."

"Bring me the video to check," Jiang Yuan said, wiping his hands.

"It’s ready, loaded on the laptop," Wang Chuanxing, well prepared, opened the laptop on the desk.