Chinese criminal networks spread their wings in Nepal amid illegal trade

Amid a rapid surge in Chinese criminal networks and illegal trade in Nepal, district police officials nabbed a Chinese national involved in fraud after raiding a suspicious call centre in Nepal recently.

Amid a rapid surge in Chinese criminal networks and illegal trade in Nepal, district police officials nabbed a Chinese national involved in fraud after raiding a suspicious call centre in Nepal recently. The call centre named Blue Sky Business Solutions located in Tilottama-2 Janakinagar area of Nepal was raided by a team of police deployed from the District Police Office Rupandehi on July 24.

According to the police, the Chinese have now made Nepal a transit point for illegal trade and fraudulent crimes. Moreover, the criminal networks of Chinese have also given rise to wildlife smuggling. The police also seized 162 kg of pangolins from the Chinese national who brought it to Nepal from the Congo, Africa via Turkey, Khabarhub reported.

According to the police report, on 29 January 2018, Chinese citizens Que Xiorong and Que Liba O were arrested at the Kathmandu airport with the pangolins. Soon after, on 21 August 2018, the police caught three Chinese people in a hotel in Thamel with a sea horse and a tiger skin. The owner of the Kathmandu One Hotel was Chinese citizen Chen Kang. The Chinese are at the forefront of smuggling yarsagumba, sunakhari, tiger bones and various herbs. In addition, the Chinese have expanded their crime network in the medical sector in Nepal.

Furthermore, the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of police also arrested 13 doctors working at Apollo International Clinic in Thamel, China Great Wall Health Center in Bouddha, China People's Hospital and China Dental Hospital on 28 February 2018 who were doing medical work in Nepal charging expensive service charges and without legal permission, Khabarhub reported. According to the police, even now, some Chinese are involved in the business of operating similar hospitals by pretending to be Nepalese.

The activities of the Chinese were not limited to illegal trade. At a time when the whole world was in shock due to Covid, on 8 May 2020, the Chinese staged a gherao in front of the gate of the main administrative body Singha Durbar with the demand to be allowed to return home and beat up some policemen. DSP Hari Bahadur Basnet of Metropolitan Police Circle, Singha Durbar and a female police officer was injured when 33 Chinese nationals who gathered in the restricted area pelted stones at police.

Soon after, on 10 March 2022, a 28-year-old Chinese citizen named Chong Zhenjian, who was involved in suspicious activities in the northern area of Sankhuwasabha, was arrested as he was caught in unlawful activities at the border crossing between Nepal and China. According to the data of the Nepal Police, it has been found that the Chinese were initially involved in illegal dollar transactions by smuggling gold and red sandalwood following which police had increased their surveillance on the Chinese after arresting Kovin Li, a Chinese national with 40,000 dollars from Bhaktapur, for the first time, on 4 October 2010.

Later, in the same month, the police also arrested three Chinese from Swayambhu in Kathmandu with three hundred thousand US dollars. In December 2011, another Chinese was arrested for smuggling dollars to the Tatopani border. Similarly, on 30 August 13, 2019, the Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police issued a notice in this regard.

The notice stated that Nepali girls were trafficked by Chinese nationals in the form of brides. However, after a long investigation, the police concluded that under the pretext of marriage Nepali girls were being trafficked. Four victim girls were rescued from Chinese marriage bureaus operating in various places in Kathmandu.

Chinese networks have spread everywhere from gold, dollars, wildlife parts, herbal smuggling, hacking, human kidnapping, attempted murder, human trafficking, drug trafficking, online fraud, gambling and game centres and illegal medical practices, Khabarhub reported, citing the police officials. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)