A man in the south Chinese metropolis of Chongqing, Sichuan Province, was recently sentenced to jail for 7 months for blackmailing and extorting a video game arcade for...cigarettes.
According to Chongqing Daily, the man in question, Duan Wei had a criminal record and was previously in Jail for 4 years for theft. Duan Wei got out of prison and in 2007 he and 6 cohorts started causing trouble at Cheng Fei's arcade in the Dian Jiang Xian suburbs of Chongqing. Duan and his goons wanted to pressure Cheng Fei to pay protection money otherwise risk having problems. One of Cheng's patrons Luo Ping overheard the conversation and stood up for Cheng. Unfortunately for Luo, Duan and his crew beat him up so badly that Luo was hospitalized.
For the continuation of the year until March 2008, Duan would visit Cheng's arcade with his boys and cause trouble. According to reports, Cheng succumbed to the pressure and started giving Duan protection money. Despite asking for protection money, Duan asked Cheng to give him two cartons of "LongFeng Superior" cigarettes.
Over the course of 13 months Cheng paid Duan a total of 28 cartons of cigarettes amounting to $790 USD.
Unfortunately Chongqing Daily and Tencent don't go further with the story only revealing that Duan was arrested in November of 2011 in Yunnan province.
男子开游戏室遭勒索 每月2条香烟当保护费 [Tencent]
(Top photo: hunta | Shutterstock)