Yang Shukuan, a former member of the northern Tangshan City's Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the head of an organised crime ring, was arrested for extortion last year.

'The prosecutor said Yang and other gang members had dominated the area in which they lived, bullying locals and causing untold damage to local economic and social activities,' the China Daily said, citing state television.

Yang, 'reported to have had a passion for guns ever since he was a little boy', had amassed more than 100 million yuan (S$20 million) in assets, partly by forcing businessmen to sign contracts at gunpoint, the paper said.

Apart from a 7 million yuan Rolls-Royce and 20 other cars belonging to his wife, police found 31 guns and four armoured cars - 'jeeps and military cars refitted as attack vehicles' - in Yang's possession.

The paper reported that Yang would drive the armoured cars around Tangshan to terrorise locals and attack rivals. His company was also fined 30 million yuan by a local court in north-eastern Hebei province.

REUTERS