Taiwanese-led fraud syndicates suspected of cheating 3.5 mln USD: police

Two telecom fraud syndicates led by Taiwanese suspects were found to have cheated residents on the Chinese mainland out of some 23 million yuan (3.5 million U.S. dollars) in 178 cases, the mainland police said on Friday.

Members of the two criminal syndicates included 45 Taiwanese and 32 mainland suspects who were deported from Kenya in April, said a statement of the Ministry of Public Security.

All suspects are currently held at a detention center in Beijing's Haidian district and the police have approached prosecutors for approval of warrant of arrest, the statement said.

Police will continue to investigate the phone scam cases and the suspects' legitimate rights will be protected, it said.

Police have obtained information about other syndicate members at large, the statement said.

Mainland police hope to work with the Taiwan side in collecting evidence, retrieving scammed money and hunting down fugitives, said Vice Minister of Public Security Chen Zhimin, at a meeting with a delegation of judicial officials from Taiwan on Thursday evening.

The two sides have met to discuss jointly fighting telecom frauds from Thursday to Saturday in southern Chinese city of Zhuhai.

Chen Wen-chi, who leads the Taiwan delegation, said that Taiwan is willing to cooperate with the mainland and expected this meeting to lead to future cooperation. Endi