Chapter 356: Catching the Big Fish

The police officers were somewhat excited.

Uncovering a Money Laundering Gang is undoubtedly significant.

Because of the gang's special nature, their clients are unlikely to be any easy marks; after all, only dirty money needs laundering, and only those who do illicit deeds have dirty money.

If they can locate this Money Laundering Gang, the Police could likely follow the trail to many law‑breaking individuals and even the whole organization.

Xu Mo was thinking that the reward this time would be quite good, since the case now involves not only a Counterfeit Financial Institution Fraud scammer but also a Money Laundering Gang and many people doing business with that gang—a major case!

Seeing the officers' expressions, Wang Hai's eyes rolled; he realized the Police seemed very interested in the Money Laundering Gang, and if he could help them take it down, wouldn't that count as Merit? It would be a good chance for Sentence Reduction!

"How are you in contact with this Money Laundering Gang? By phone?" Li Yunfei asked.

Wang Hai gave a flattering smile: "Comrade Police, if the information I provide helps you catch this Money Laundering Gang, does that count as good conduct… could you grant me a Sentence Reduction on that basis?"

"You're bargaining with us?" Li Yunfei's face turned cold: "Whether you get a Sentence Reduction depends on your performance; no one can say for sure, but I can tell you now that if you use this as a bargaining chip and deliberately withhold information for a reduction, that's failure to report, sheltering a criminal organization, and adds a level to the crime."

After intimidating Wang Hai, Li Yunfei's expression softened quickly, and he patted Wang Hai's shoulder: "You're a smart person; I trust you know what you should do."

Wang Hai nodded repeatedly: "Got it, got it!"

Then he said: "Phone communication might be tapped, unsafe. I and the people from the Money Laundering Gang arrange time and place over the phone, then meet privately."

Wang Hai didn't know whether full cooperation would earn a Sentence Reduction, but he knew he absolutely could not risk a Sentence Increase for failing to report; the Counterfeit Financial Institution Fraud of over four million is already a serious crime, and adding a charge of sheltering the Money Laundering Gang would trap him for life!

"Now call them to arrange a meeting and tell them you have another sum of money to launder," Li Yunfei first looked at Wang Hai.

Then he turned to the other officers: "Prepare in advance; whatever number they send, we arrest that many, then find a way to extract information about the rest of the organization from them. Ideally we can wipe out this laundering organization in one blow!"

"I'll call the bureau and summon more people to help, so we don't lack manpower," Li Yunfei said, pulling out his phone and dialing the bureau.

Ten minutes later, six private cars arrived at the bank entrance, and all the people stepping out were plainclothes officers.

These were the reinforcements Li Yunfei had called for.

The Money Laundering Gang members must be very cunning; to prevent any slip‑up in this raid, they can only summon more reinforcements.

Adding the newly arrived officers, there were now over thirty officers inside the bank; with so many executing the raid simultaneously, the target basically couldn't escape.

Seeing the reinforcements arrive, Li Yunfei looked at the handcuffed Wang Hai.

"Alright, make the call now, contact that criminal gang."

"Um, comrade Police, you confiscated my phone..." Wang Hai said cautiously.

Li Yunfei immediately pulled the confiscated phone from his pocket and handed it to Wang Hai.

Wang Hai took the phone, glanced at the surrounding officers, then opened the contacts, dialed a number, and, reading the room, switched to speaker mode.

After about a dozen seconds, the call finally connected.

Wang Hai hurriedly said, "Zhang Ge, I, Wang Hai, are you free now?"

"Mm." The voice on the other end nodded, then said, "In one hour, Coast Cafe."

Then the call was hung up.

Wang Hai looked at the officers and said, "It's arranged: in one hour, Coast Cafe."

Li Yunfei reached out, took the phone back from Wang Hai, and slipped it into his own pocket to prevent any trick.

Then he looked at the other officers: "We need to get there early and set up an ambush; no time to waste, everyone get in the cars and move out!"

……

Coast Cafe.

To catch the big fish, the Police removed the Handcuffs from Wang Hai.

They weren't worried at all that Wang Hai might try to flee, since they were surrounded by their own people.

Likewise, the officers weren't too concerned about the raid, because in their view the operation left almost no chance of failure.

Over thirty plainclothes officers had already encircled the three outer layers of the coffee shop; both inside and out were their men. Once the target was identified, they could arrest him instantly—unless he grew wings and flew away, he couldn't get away.

Only Xu Mo kept his brow furrowed; he constantly felt the raid wouldn't go smoothly.

The Money Laundering Gang was being too childish... they feared phone tapping yet agreed to a face‑to‑face meeting? Is a face meeting any less dangerous?

In Xu Mo's view, a face meeting is far riskier than a phone call; a phone can still use a virtual number the Police can't trace, but if the time and place of a meeting are exposed, they'd be a sitting duck.

At that moment, a man in a black suit walked toward Wang Hai, who was sitting near the back door of the coffee shop.

The moment he saw the man, Wang Hai lifted his coffee and took a sip.

That was the prearranged signal with the Police; when the target appeared, he would signal the officers by sipping his coffee.

Xu Mo noticed Wang Hai's signal and also the suited man walking straight toward him; his keen eyes examined the man and instantly spotted the problem.

The other party indeed had a backup plan; no wonder they dared to openly arrange a public meeting to discuss laundering.

The next second, Li Yunfei pressed his Wireless Earpiece and said,

"Target spotted, move!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, before any officer could act, Xu Mo also pressed his Wireless Earpiece and said, "Hold back, there's a problem."

The officers who were about to rush the target and subdue him froze instantly, glancing toward Xu Mo's direction, all looking puzzled.

"A problem? What problem?"