Indonesia arrests a Chinese man wanted by Beijing over money laundering charges

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities have arrested a Chinese man sought by Beijing for allegedly helping transfer and laundering almost $18 million from a criminal online gambling group in China, officials said Thursday.

Yan Zhenxing was detained Monday by immigration officers at a cross-border ferry terminal on Batam island, next to Singapore.

Yuldi Yusman, the Director of Immigration Supervision and Enforcement, said Yan was arrested following an Interpol red notice for him. The notices request law enforcement agencies worldwide to detain or arrest a suspect wanted by a specific country.

Yusman said Yan, a permanent resident of Singapore, was arriving in Batam for holiday with his family when he was detained.

Indonesian authorities brought the suspect, wearing a detainee’s orange shirt and a facemask, to a news conference Thursday in the capital of Jakarta. The suspect did not make any statements and was not asked any questions.

Yusman said that Yan was named as a suspect by police in China’s Inner Mongolia region who allege he was involved in transfering and laundering more than 130 million Chinese Yuan ($17.8 million) from a criminal online gambling group.

He said Yan was handed to Indonesia’s National Central Bureau Interpol in Jakarta on Thursday and a decision to deport or to extradite him to China will take some time.

The arrest came just two months after immigration officers on the tourist island of Bali arrested a Chinese suspect sought by Beijing who allegedly helped to run investment scams that brought in over $14 billion from clients in China.

“We are committed to protecting Indonesia’s territory from the arrival of foreign nationals who are not useful and threaten national stability,” Yusman said.

Indonesia, an archipelago nation on the crossroads between Asia and the South Pacific, is attractive to local, regional and global organized crime because of its geographical location.

Last month, authorities in Bali arrested Hector Aldwin Pantollana, a Filipino fugitive accused of helping scam over $67 million out of clients in the Philippines.

Another Filipino, Alice Guo, a fugitive former mayor accused of having links to Chinese criminal syndicates, was arrested near Jakarta in September. She has since been deported to the Philippines.

In June, Chaowalit Thongduang, one of Thailand’s most wanted fugitives, was escorted back to Thailand on a Thai air force plane after being arrested in Bali following months on the run over allegations he was involved in several killings and drug trafficking.

___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.