A wanted robber from Guangdong Province returned to his hometown after five years on the run and became a village Party chief for about two years, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
Ye Dongqing, the former vice Party secretary of Qingshui Village in Xinyi City, is now under criminal detention after one of his -former accomplices reported him to the police. Authorities in Xinyi have now started an investigation.
An officer with Xinyi police, Chen Guowu, said that Ye and his friends beat up their counterparts over a gambling conflict and drove away their BMW in May 1999.
Ye's friends were caught during 2000 and sentenced to three to eight years' imprisonment. Although they allegedly told the police about Ye's part in the crime, he still managed to escape.
In April 2004, Ye returned to Qingshui Village of Xinbao Town, and became the village's vice Party secretary in May 2009.
Wu Yundong, the Party chief of Xinbao Town overseeing the village, said that when he first met Ye in 2004, he didn't know about his past, but only heard that he used to do business in Shenzhen, a booming city of Guangdong.
In Wu's opinion, Ye was a pretty good official. "To be honest, he is very courageous with an agile mind."
Ye was recently turned in by his partner in the robbery. Xiong Tianxiang, who had been released from prison, claimed in a signed informant's letter that someone with Xinyi police had accepted a bribe and taken Ye's name off an online wanted list.
After receiving Xiong's report, Xinyi police immediately checked the list, but didn't find Ye's name. Later the police checked the former case file of the robbery and confirmed Ye's crime.
Luo Weiquan, former vice director of Xinyi police bureau, who was in charge of investigating that robbery 12 years ago, told the newspaper that by April 2004 when he left his position, Ye was still a wanted criminal on the list. Luo claimed he never saw any orders about taking Ye's name off the list.
The vice Party secretary of Xinyi, Zhang Huoyan, said on Wednesday that local authorities had started an urgent investigation, and anyone found responsible for the situation would be punished.
