All suspects in Hong Kong kidnap case arrested: reports

Chinese police nabbed five remaining suspects who fled from Hong Kong with millions in ransom money after a kidnap, reports said late Tuesday, a day after the arrest of another suspect in the case.

The five were all arrested by mainland authorities in the Chinese province of Guangdong — two at a hotel in the city of Shenzhen on Monday morning — the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources and witnesses.

“All of them have been arrested,” a source told the SCMP.

Hong Kong Police said Monday that one suspect was arrested at Lo Wu, a border checkpoint connecting the city with China.

However, it was unclear whether authorities had recovered the HK$28 million ransom payment.

Police in Hong Kong embarked on a massive operation to hunt down the six suspected kidnappers after the release of 29-year-old Queenie Rosita Law last Tuesday.

The search came after they allegedly fled the city with a ransom payment of HK$28 million ($3.61 million), paid by Law’s family members.

Law, who is the granddaughter of late textiles tycoon Law Ting-pong and was held for at least three days, said late Thursday in a press conference that she was not injured.

The kidnappers had initially demanded up to HK$50 million for her release, but settled on HK$28 million.

The southern Chinese city of seven million people is for the most part considered to be safe, with violent crimes in 2014 falling almost 10 percent from 2013. Robberies also fell 38.2 percent to 309 cases in 2014, compared to figures from 2013.

But a series of high-profile kidnapping cases shocked the city in the 1990s.

The eldest son of the city’s richest man Li Ka-shing was kidnapped in 1996 by the infamous crime boss Cheung Tze-keung, nicknamed “Big Spender”, who also kidnapped property tycoon Walter Kwok in 1997.

Cheung fled to China but was later arrested by mainland authorities and was executed in 1998.