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Bossini heiress kidnapping
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The unnamed man (right) was taken to Tsz Wan Shan police station yesterday. Photo: Sam Tsang

Update | Bossini heiress kidnap suspect arrested at Hong Kong border as remaining fugitives ‘smuggled back to mainland’

Several others involved in HK$28m ransom and abduction of fashion chain heiress thought to have been smuggled across to the mainland

Several of the six kidnappers responsible for the multimillion-dollar ransom and abduction of Hong Kong's Bossini fashion chain heiress, Queenie Rosita Law, have been smuggled back to the mainland, the Post has learned.

The revelation surfaced after one of the fugitives was intercepted at the Lo Wu border checkpoint when he tried to leave for Shenzhen at about 10.30pm on Sunday, only to be arrested.

Last night, the five other suspects - believed to be from the mainland - remained at large and in possession of the HK$28 million paid in ransom for the return of Law last Tuesday night, despite police mounting a huge search operation in Sha Tau Kok, near the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

DON'T MISS: Police appear with suspect in Hong Kong kidnapping of Bossini heiress

It is understood that some of them had left for Shenzhen through illegal channels and that the rest were hiding out in Hong Kong.

The suspect arrested on Sunday. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The arrest of one of the suspects was announced yesterday by new police chief Stephen Lo Wai-chung, as police investigations revealed that the cave where Law, 29, was held for three days was dug by the kidnappers at Fei Ngo Shan, at the southern end of Ma On Shan Country Park.

"Investigations showed one of the kidnappers received a call from his accomplice to confirm they had received the ransom, and then he carried the victim downhill and released her," one police source said.

He added that the victim was blindfolded and tied up at the time. Police had not located the cave as of last night.

The 29-year-old man arrested on Sunday night holds a two-way permit, the travel document mainlanders use to visit Hong Kong. He is understood to have come from Guizhou province.

He is one of two suspects who have been identified by police. Photos of the two men were released last Wednesday as police made a public appeal for help to locate them.

The arrested man tried to leave Hong Kong through an official channel and took the risk of being apprehended.

"He did not disguise himself or carry a bogus travel document when he was intercepted by immigration officers," another police source said.

Lo, who yesterday replaced Andy Tsang Wai-hung as police commissioner, said: "Police will spare no efforts to look for the other kidnappers."

He said police would work closely with mainland authorities to find those still at large.

At about 3pm yesterday, the arrested suspect was escorted hooded and handcuffed by police to the headquarters of the Kowloon East regional crime unit in Tsz Wan Shan.

Last night, he was being held for questioning and had not been charged.

It is the first arrest made since police launched a citywide manhunt for the six Putonghua-speaking men who broke into Law's home in Sai Kung and abducted her on April 25. The gang also stole more than HK$2 million in cash and valuables from her house.

Law, the granddaughter of late Bossini founder Law Ting-pong, was hidden in the secluded cave at Fei Ngo Shan while the kidnappers called her father and demanded more than HK$40 million as payment for her release. After negotiations, the amount was lowered to HK$28 million. She was released last Tuesday night after the ransom was paid.

A 30-year-old housewife living in Loi Tung Village in Sha Tau Kok, where police have been searching for the suspects, said she had noticed strangers speaking Putonghua in her neighbourhood in recent months but had not been sure if they were construction workers or illegal immigrants.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Kidnap suspect nabbed at border
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