A man is in custody, accused of trying to extort cash from
Beijing supermarkets by threatening to poison their food
products.
Yin Gang, 40, an itinerant originally from Jiamusi, northeast
China's Heilongjiang
Province, has tried the scheme on seven large supermarkets
since November 12, said the Beijing's Public Security Bureau.
The supermarkets received anonymous calls and letters claiming
that pesticides had been injected into some of their foods. He
demanded for money to be deposited in a bank account.
All food was removed from the shelves at the affected
supermarkets while warnings were sent to other outlets across the
city.
Police used the bank account information provided and
surveillance cameras on automated tellers to track down the
suspect.
He was using a fake identity card and called himself Li Yang,
the Beijing News reported.
Once he had been tracked to Xicheng District, a sting was set up
on Tuesday, with officers keeping a close eye on supermarkets, bank
machines and hotels.
Around 11:25 AM, the suspect was spotted near Jishuitan Hospital
and followed into an alley.
He was arrested near a bank machine, carrying a supermarket
bag-deposit card, two bankcards and two phonecards.
The man confessed to the extortions and four other blackmail
attempts on supermarkets in Tianjin
and in Baoding, Hebei
Province.
Yin came to Beijing on November 10, but further details were not
released as the investigation is ongoing.
A criminal responsible for a malicious poisoning in a
supermarket in Jinhua, Zhejiang
Province, which resulted in two children suffering from
dementia, was executed in April.
(China Daily November 18, 2004)?