Dubbed the “godmother” of the Chinese underworld, she was notorious for her toughness and a lavish lifestyle that reportedly included luxury villas and a stable of 16 young lovers.

Her criminal reign ended on Tuesday when Xie Caiping, 46, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for running illegal casinos and bribing government officials. Her trial was one of a series of gang prosecutions in the southwestern city of Chongqing that have featured lurid testimony about sex, corruption and the violent underworld.

Xie is the only woman gangster to be tried as part of a month-long crackdown on local gangs, known as “black societies” here. The trials have exposed the web of links between government officials and police officers who sought to provide cover for the crime syndicates.

Xie reportedly had a Mercedes-Benz and “retained 16 young men for personal entertainment”, the local media reported. On Tuesday, her driver Luo Xuan, 29, also her lover, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for his role.

Wearing an inmate-assigned vest of bright orange, the short-haired and plain-faced Xie was grim and emotionless as she was led out of the No. 5 Intermediate People’s Court after the sentencing.

Xie had been protected for years because she was the sister-in-law of the city’s long-serving deputy police chief, Wen Qiang, who was detained for investigation by the ruling Communist Party in August. Wen, who said to be at the heart of an extensive network of protection of local gangs for over a decade, will go on trial later in the month.

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