Two of China’s most wanted fugitives caught in SVG

Commissioner of Police (COP) Michael Charles confirmed on Wednesday that two of China’s most wanted fugitives, Fu Yaobo and Zhang Qingzhao, were caught here recently.

According to Charles, a joint operation between Grenadian and Vincentian police netted the duo, who had entered the country legally earlier this year. They were then turned over to Grenadian authorities.{{more}}

An online publication, China Daily Europe, stated in a June 2 release that Fu Yaobo and Zhang Qingzhao fled China a year and half ago, under suspicion of jointly embezzling public funds of 29.96 million yuan (US$4.56 million).

The publication said that according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) Fu Yaobo and Zhang Qingzhao, who both featured on an official list of China’s 100 most wanted fugitives, released in April, were repatriated from the Caribbean state of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“Fu, 50, was an employee in charge of case hearing in the labour and social security detachment in Benxi City in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, while Zhang, 44, was a cashier for the same detachment.

“Since September 2014, Fu and Zhang have been on the run in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Grenada, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,” said the release.

China Daily Europe said that after a 51-day joint operation between Chinese police and their counterparts in Grenada, and SVG, the two were captured in “a mountainous area in the suburbs of the capital” of SVG.

While the report states that the fugitives were caught in a mountainous area, when asked, police were unable to say where exactly the duo was nabbed.

On February 5, 2016, the two had their Grenadian citizenship revoked, as the authorities in that country said that they no longer satisfied the provisions of that country’s Citizenship by Investment Act. They had gained citizenship through that programme, also referred to as Economic Citizenship.

The Chinese fugitives are the second set of internationally sought fugitives held in St Vincent in recent times.

Kshawn Zran Rocque (born in July 1991) of High Road, Barrouallie is presently in police custody, awaiting extradition to Canada. Rocque, a Vincentian, is linked to a 2013 murder in Canada, the drive-by shooting of Fehmi Sen in Montreal, Québec. Reports are that on May 30, 2013, Sen and two friends were standing near a park in the Côte-des-neiges area in Montreal when shots were fired at him from a black moving vehicle.

Paramedics took Sen to the hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries. (LC)