Police in Putian city, Fujian Province, on Thursday successfully arrested three men who robbed 1,700,000 HK dollars from a bank customer in Guangzhou in early January.

The Fuzhou-based Southeast Express reports several squads of policemen in Thursday evening were sent to surround a hotel in Putian city, where one of the suspects was located. The man, Xie Wei, was caught as he stepped out of the hotel.

The police found more than 200,000 yuan (US$25,000) of the stolen money on Xie.

The other two suspects, called Xing and Tao, were later seized with a large amount of illicit money near the entry to the Fuzhou-Quanzhou highway.

The three men plundered 1,700,000 HK dollars and a cellphone from a man on January 9. The victim had just drawn the money out of a bank and was driving out of the parking lot when he was attacked.

Police sources revealed Xie Wei was preparing to flee to Guangdong province while he was in Putian. He had already traveled around the Tianjin municipality, and the Hubei and Fujian provinces in a bid to evade the police.
 
(CRI January 27, 2007)