A Chinese national was jailed for seven months on Monday for recovering stolen cash and valuables worth nearly S$500,000 on behalf of a burglary syndicate. The 28-year-old food deliveryman from Shenzhen, Wu Jinxing, pleaded guilty to handling the benefits of criminal conduct.
According to a court hearing, Wu earned around 200 yuan daily as a deliveryman in China. But he was offered 30,000 yuan (S$5,600) to fly to Singapore and retrieve stolen items.
On July 27, Wu arrived in Singapore and was ordered to recover an orange Hermes Birkin bag worth nearly S$45,000 from a forested area near Buona Vista MRT station. The police have recovered the orange Birkin bag, and its contents were recovered during Wu’s arrest.
Meanwhile, another two Chinese nationals, who scaled a fence of a house along Windsor Park Road and made off with S$570,000 (US$422,000) in jewellery, have been arrested by the Singapore Police Force (SPF).
Both men, Long Zhihua, 38, and Luo Changchang, 44, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count each of housebreaking. According to reports, Long has an additional charge of possessing stolen items.
Long Zhihua, 38, and Luo Changchang, 44, were caught before they returned to China. However, the police couldn’t recover S$390,200 in jewellery belonging to the victim, a 53-year-old woman.
The court documents identified both men to be part of a criminal syndicate from China and they had come to Singapore with the intention of breaking into houses to steal. Both of them have been in remand since their arrest.
Channel News Asia quoted Deputy Public Prosecutor Kathy Chu as saying that Long and Luo were “partially cooperative” as they helped the police by identifying the house they broke into. The duo also revealed that some of the jewellery retrieved from their hotel room had come from another house in the same area.
“However, they failed to disclose the full details of how they had broken into the victim’s room, what happened to the victim’s other jewellery and did not provide information on the other valuables seized,” added Chu.
The Deputy Public Prosecutor further said, “They also lied about their relationship with each other and their purpose of coming to Singapore.”
The authorities arrested Long and Luo on June 26 after tracing them through closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage from a neighboring property.
The SPF seized some of the victim’s jewellery in the hotel room, but others with a value of S$390,200 remains unrecovered. Other items, including a watch, were seized from the duo’s hotel room as they claimed the items did not belong to them. Singapore currency worth S$9,634.60 was also found in the room, during the procedure.
In August, the SPF revealed to local media that there was a rise in housebreaking incidents involving foreign syndicates, notably Chinese nationals. According to the statement, the suspects were reportedly exploiting Singapore’s visa-free entry arrangements to commit crimes before fleeing quickly to evade detection.
Since then, the SPF has arrested three individuals, including Wu Jinxing, and reportedly the police have connected with the Chinese authorities to locate 14 more suspects.
