Chinese police have dismantled 75 criminal gangs that held mute and hearing-impaired people in captivity and forced them to commit crimes such as theft, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced Friday.
Police rescued 98 victims, and detained 464 suspects in a campaign that spanned 13 provincial regions, according to the MPS.
In November 2015, police in Changchun in northeastern province of Jilin were alerted to the criminal activity of a suspect identified only as Yang. Yang was the ringleader of a gang that had abducted mute and hearing-impaired people and forced them to commit crimes with physical and verbal abuse.
It is alleged that the gang members posed as recruiters to gain the trust of the victims before abducting them.
