What’s new: Malaysian police have cracked a criminal ring responsible for kidnapping a Chinese national last month, local media reported.
The Chinese man was abducted, along with a Malaysian woman, on July 11 near a highway in Cyberjaya, some 30 kilometers south of the capital Kuala Lumpur. The two victims were released on July 15 after a relative of the Chinese national paid a ransom of nearly $1.2 million in cryptocurrency, according to reports from the Malay Mail.
Local police said 18 people were involved in the kidnapping, including the victims’ driver, The Star reported. Ten have been arrested, while four were killed during an operation by the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) earlier this month. The remaining four were still at large as of Wednesday.
The RMP recorded 541 cases of kidnapping cases from 2020 to July this year, with the highest annual number in 2023 with 148 cases, the RMP Inspector-General Tan Sri Razarudin bin Husain said in local media reports.
The background: Chinese nationals have fallen victim to kidnapping as well as virtual kidnapping in other Southeast Asian nations in recent months.
Two medical executives, including a Chinese citizen, were kidnapped and murdered in the Philippines in June after they were invited to travel to Manila for a supposed business trip.
Last month, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand issued a warning about a scam in which Chinese citizens living abroad have been tricked into staging their own kidnapping so criminals can con their families out of money.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
