Do you know where the waste lead batteries on electric bicycles and electric cars are? In Huai ‘an, Chen Mou and others bought waste lead batteries from Shanghai, Nanjing, Gaoyou, Siyang and Huai ‘an for illegal dismantling and refining lead ingots without any qualifications. According to the investigation by the Qingjiangpu District Procuratorate of Huai ‘an City, in less than one year, Chen Mou and others illegally purchased and dismantled more than 18,600 tons of waste lead batteries, and refined more than 9,349 tons of lead ingots, involving more than 100 million yuan, making illegal profits of more than 10 million yuan. According to the appraisal, it takes at least 20 million yuan to damage virtual treatment cost’s ecological environment. On the 7th, as the largest lead-acid battery environmental pollution case supervised by the Ministry of Public Security, 14 suspects, including Chen Mou and Zhang, were prosecuted by the Qingjiangpu District Procuratorate for alleged environmental pollution, and suggested that the court sentence Chen Mou and Zhang to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from one year to six months to seven years respectively.
When Chen Mou, 33, returned to his hometown in Huai ‘an for the Spring Festival in 2016, he hit it off with Zhang, who was also working in other places, and each contributed 300,000 yuan to start the recycling business of used lead batteries.
At the beginning, Chen Mou and others sold the purchased waste lead-acid batteries to a renewable resources company in Xuzhou to earn the difference profit. Later, Chen Mou and Zhang discovered that by doing so, not only did they not earn much money, but also the funds were slowly withdrawn. Chen Mou invited his fellow villager Hu to invest 500,000 yuan each to buy, disassemble and refine lead ingots. Because their business is illegal and they are afraid of being discovered by others, Chen Mou and Hu rented a remote abandoned factory in Yuanji Township, Huaiyin District, and used it as a dismantling factory for waste lead batteries. Then, they went to Matou Town, Huaiyin District and rented an abandoned brick factory to be a lead ingot refining workshop for waste lead batteries. Chen Mou and Hu bought stoves, blowers, models of lead blocks and other equipment together, and then contacted their fellow villagers to help, so that a one-stop production line of battery acquisition, disassembly and refining was built. Up to the time of the crime, Chen Mou and others illegally purchased and dismantled more than 18,600 tons of waste lead batteries, and refined more than 9,349 tons of lead ingots, involving more than 100 million yuan and making illegal profits of more than 10 million yuan.
In order to avoid the investigation by the environmental protection department and the public security organs, they covered the windows of each factory building with shielding nets, so that the inside could not be seen from the outside.
In September last year, the Huaiyin District Environmental Protection Bureau received a report from the masses that a factory emitted an unpleasant smell. After the staff of the Environmental Protection Bureau seized it on the spot, they felt that the case was serious. The Environmental Protection Bureau immediately contacted the public security organ, and the public security organ filed a case for investigation that day. More than 100 tons of waste lead batteries were seized on site. The case subsequently became the largest environmental pollution case of lead-acid batteries in the province supervised by the Ministry of Public Security. (Yangzi Evening News/Yangyan reporter Zhu Dingzhao correspondent Wei Congjin Zhang Chaoyun Cao Yanan)
