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)