A police investigation into the murder and mutilation of a young Chinese couple was broadened to the Beijing underworld last night as detectives followed up claims that an international criminal syndicate ordered the killings. British police confirmed that officers had flown to the Chinese capital to investigate the murders of Yang Zhenxing (楊振興) and his girlfriend Zhou Xi (周茜) both 25, whose bodies were found in an apartment in Newcastle upon Tyne on Aug. 9.
In a separate development, officers from Scotland Yard’s serious crime directorate, which has detectives specializing in investigating executions by Chinese gangs, including the triads, have joined the Northumberland Police team.
Every UK police force has also been asked to provide details of any violent crime that might have similarities with the murders. Detectives are exploring the theory that a major criminal network might have sanctioned a double hit rather than the murders being the result of a local dispute.
The bodies of Yang and Zhou were discovered with serious head injuries in their ground-floor apartment. Yang had been tortured. Police believe the couple, who met while studying for masters degrees at Newcastle University, almost certainly knew their killers.
A major Chinese-based international betting syndicate, which employed Yang as an international agent in its efforts to gain an edge when betting on the results of Premier League football games shown in China, is understood to be under investigation by police.
English football matches are shown in China with up to a minute’s delay, offering gambling syndicates with live information a critical advantage.
Detectives in China, London and Northumbria are concentrating upon the theory that Yang — known to friends as Kevin — had double-crossed his employers and was visited last weekend by a gang determined to take revenge for missing payments. A series of threats posted on Chinese Mandarin Web sites by people allegedly recruited by Yang and who had not been paid are being tracked down in UK and China.
Yang, who graduated along with his girlfriend in 2006, might have been tortured because his killers wanted to find cash linked to the alleged racket.
He was eventually bludgeoned and stabbed to death. Zhou, a waitress at a Newcastle noodle bar, was asphyxiated, possibly in an attempt to stifle her screams. The murder weapons — a knife and another sharp-edged instrument — have yet to be found.
Northumbria Police also confirmed that they had started liaising with the Chinese embassy and consulate as part of diplomatic efforts to help with inquiries in China.
One obstacle that has hampered British police efforts so far is that attempts to investigate the backgrounds of Yang, whose has family in Dalian, and Zhou, originally from Hunan Province, were difficult because of the distances involved.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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