Albania police arrest Chinese allegedly tied to crime group

TIRANA, Albania – Albanian police say they have arrested a Chinese man wanted in his country for illegal earnings as part of an organized crime group.

A statement Wednesday said following co-operation with Interpol Beijing, Interpol Tirana had arrested the man identified only as 25-year-old G.L.

The suspect was probed by the Gaozhou police, in the southwestern Chinese province of Guangdong, for being part of a criminal group who earned money from illegal loans and casinos, and used violence to get the loans repaid.

In 2013 G.L. and other people kidnapped a Chinese citizen demanding that he pay back 3.8 million yuan (some $500,000). A year later another Chinese citizen was obliged to sell 23 apartments, 40 parking lots and six vehicles at a low price to pay back the loan to the Mafia-like group.

The man is expected to be extradited to China.