for old times' sake

— When gang leader Chen Xinfu was apprehended in Haikou, capital of south China’s island province of Hainan, earlier this month he told his arresting officers: “Guys, take good care of me, for old times’ sake.” Unlike the hundreds of other mob bosses who have been rounded up in recent months, Chen has a special relationship with the police: before his descent into the criminal underworld, he was deputy head of the public security bureau in the city’s Xiuying district.