By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-27 06:11:17 | Updated at 2025-01-28 02:09:18
20 hours ago
A key suspect wanted in connection with human trafficking and telecoms fraud cases, including the recent high-profile case of Chinese actor Wang Xing, has been arrested and sent to China, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted on its website on Sunday.
The man, identified earlier by mainland media as Yan Wenlei, arrived in China on Saturday night after joint efforts from the ministry, China’s embassy in Thailand and Thai law enforcement authorities, the ministry said.
“The public security authorities are doing their utmost to investigate the case,” the ministry statement said.
Over the past month, Yan, known on social media as “Yan Shiliu”, had been posting recruitment advertisements in WeChat groups for actors, models and production crew members for work in Thailand, according to the ministry.
Wang has said that he responded to one such advertisement and reached out to Yan, who had posed as an associate director.
Wang, 22, has told authorities that he flew to Thailand earlier this month expecting to take part in a film shoot. Soon after he arrived, he said he was transported across the Thai border into Myanmar to a compound known as “Apollo” park and other online scam farms in Myawaddy, a city notorious as a fraud hub.
Wang’s ordeal caused a public outcry after his girlfriend posted on social media that he was missing. The campaign drew widespread attention to the case. Wang was later retrieved and returned to China.
“The public security authorities will … make every effort to apprehend suspected criminals …[and] compress the space for cross-border crime to the maximum extent possible,” the ministry said in its statement.
