A Huai'an native, Bian Mou, originally involved in transporting waste cooking oil in Shanghai, accidentally discovered a huge scam in the industry. After simple processing, this waste oil could be refined into "gutter oil," yielding enormous profits. Tempted by the lucrative returns, Bian Mou returned to his hometown and set up a grain and oil processing factory under the guise of producing feed oil, mass-producing gutter oil that entered the food chain. On the morning of September 19 this year, Huai'an police deployed 120 officers and successfully raided the factory. Investigations revealed that over the past three years, thousands of tons of gutter oil had flowed into the edible oil market, generating nearly tens of millions in profits. This gutter oil was distributed to Henan, Anhui, and the cities of Nantong and Yancheng within the province. Due to the enormous value of this case, it was listed as one of the top ten typical cases in the Ministry of Public Security's "Strike Hard against Four Evils and Eliminate Four Pests" special operation.

Reported by Yan Kewen, Fast News

　Foul odor emanates from abandoned school

　Police had been watching since last year

As early as June or July last year, Bian Mou had already come under police scrutiny. While visiting residents, police officers received information that villagers in Wangwa Village, Sanshu Town, Huaiyin District, frequently reported environmental pollution problems, leading to numerous complaints. Further investigation revealed that Huai'an Yufeng Feed Oil Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yufeng Company), located in the village, was the source of the pollution.

"The smell was terrible," recalled the police officer. The factory was built in an abandoned primary school. Initial investigation of the exterior revealed that the school consisted of 30 rooms. Apart from one employee dormitory, one office, and one accounting room, all other rooms had been converted into production workshops; some workshops were even set up outdoors.

　The odor originated from the production process. Large quantities of waste cooking oil were transported to the factory and underwent high-temperature distillation to remove water, emitting an unbearable stench. The wastewater polluted surrounding farmland and ponds, resulting in a complete crop failure across more than ten acres of land.

The company's name suggests that it manufactures feed oil; however, police undercover investigations indicated that Yufeng Company may have been producing gutter oil.

To gather more information, the police staged a surprise inspection, requesting the involvement of the Industrial and Commercial and Environmental Protection departments. Plainclothes officers accompanied the inspectors, observing the company's production process while other departments conducted their investigations. They also secretly took samples of the finished oil for testing.

Gutter oil flows to grain and oil shops

Factory owner and two others criminally detained

During last year's operation, the police encountered legal obstacles. At that time, there were no similar cases in China, making it difficult to determine how to classify Yufeng Company's production of gutter oil. However, the police did not relax their attention to the matter and continued to monitor the company and its legal representative, Bian Mou.

In August of this year, the Ministry of Public Security launched a nationwide "Strike Hard against Four Evils and Eliminate Four Pests" operation, primarily targeting the crackdown on illegal workshops and factories. This removed the legal obstacles faced by the police, allowing the Huaiyin District police to restart the investigation of Yufeng Company.

One day in mid-September, the police tracked a truck leaving Yufeng Company. The tracking revealed that the truck stopped at a grain and oil shop in Tianchang, Anhui Province. This confirmed the police's earlier suspicions that the oil refined from waste cooking oil by Yufeng Company was not going to feed factories but was being sold into the food distribution channels, meaning it was reaching people's tables.

Subsequently, the police broadened their investigation and discovered that this gutter oil was being sent to Anhui and Henan provinces, and the cities of Nantong and Yancheng within Jiangsu Province. It was sold to ordinary citizens through these local grain and oil shops. After tracking down their targets, the police immediately raided these unscrupulous grain and oil shops, shutting down 13 illegal sales points in a single day.