Twins on trial for Chongqing mafia-style gangs

They also intentionally injured six people, destroyed other people's possessions worth 19,700 yuan ($2,900) and illegally imprisoned a person for more than 24 hours.

On June 22 last year, two members of the Zhangs' gang lost money after playing in a game house. Zhao Tao came to help them and asked the owner of the house to pay the money back. When Cui Binwu, the owner, turned down their request, the gang then smashed all game machines.

In July 21 this year, 21-year-old Liu Anmin failed to pay a loan of 40,000 yuan to Liu Xiaogang, a member of Zhangs' organization. Liu Anmin was then imprisoned in a hotel room for 26 hours until the police came to rescue him.

The twins' mother, 45-year-old Tan Yanqiu, is angry and sad about her sons' story.

Tan said when the twins were born, she was so happy and invited almost everyone in the village to celebrate.

The twin brothers were good boys and students until middle school, when their parents went to Hubei province to work. Then the boys started to skip classes and finally stopped going to school, she said.

"We sent them to learn skills. Zhang Bo became a disciple of a shoemaker, and Zhang Tao started to learn driving," their mother said.

However, the brothers were not satisfied with their salaries as a shoemaker and driver. Instead they started to gamble and wanted to open gambling dens themselves.

(Edit:Ruby)