Goosehead gang reward
POLICE yesterday offered a $500,000 reward for the capture of members of a gang led by the territory's most wanted man, Yip Kai-foon, nicknamed 'Goosehead'.
The gang members are said to have taken part in a series of violent robberies.
A $1 million reward for the arrest and conviction of Yip, 31, is still valid.
Yip, thought to be hiding in China, is the prime suspect in three of the most serious armed robberies in Hong Kong in recent years.
The reward offered yesterday was linked to a shootout following the robbery of two jewellery shops in Shamshuipo in March 1992. Eight men armed with pistols fired 65 shots at police and members of the public during the holdup in Tai Po Road.
Yip's gang is also suspected of being involved in a $5.7 million robbery of five jewellery shops in Mut Wah Street, Kwun Tong, in June 1991. Robbers armed with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols fired 54 shots at police.
The group is also believed to have fired 14 shots during a robbery in Hunghom just three days before the Shamshuipo heist, hitting a motorcycle patrol officer twice.
Police believe some of the gangsters were mainlanders who, together with Yip, have sneaked back into China.
Details of the rewards have been passed on to the Public Security Bureau.
Police in Macau believe Yip was involved in the enclave's largest robbery in April last year when $40 million worth of gambling chips were stolen from a casino in the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Taipa.
While serving a 16-year sentence in Hong Kong for firearms offences, Yip escaped during a hospital visit in August 1989 after threatening Correctional Services Department officers with a broken bottle.
