Philippines: Authorities apprehend 8 suspected Chinese members of kidnap gang

According to reports, the leader of the gang was also apprehended.

They are suspected of preying here on citizens of China, including one victim who was slain last month.

The eight were arrested Saturday in a sting operation that ended at a residential village in San Pedro, a town just south of Manila, the national police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) told BenarNews.

An influx of Chinese coming to the country to work in the Philippine gaming industry has been linked to a spike in crimes in recent years, the news portal reported.

In December, the gangsters allegedly kidnapped their fellow Chinese nationals, Lyu Long and Liu Xue Xue, who worked at a Chinese-owned electronics firm, CIDG chief Maj. Gen. Joel Napoleon Coronel was quoted as saying by the news portal in a statement issued Tuesday.

Their supervisor initially paid 400,000 RMB (U.S. $62,000) in ransom for Lyu but his captors did not release the victim. The company then informed police about the abduction “after receiving information that Lyu Long was killed and dumped in a deep ravine,” Coronel said.

“Police operatives were immediately dispatched to investigate and confirmed that the decomposing body was Lyu Long’s, based on the clothes he was wearing when he was last seen and on the video that was sent by the kidnappers,” the CIDG chief said.