Authorities in Yi County have cracked a cross-province money laundering case involving fraud proceeds used to buy gold, tracking the suspects through Shanxi and Langfang and recovering more than 70 grams of the precious metal, which was handed back to the victim on November 12.
On November 12, officers from the Yi County Public Security Bureau verified the paperwork and returned the gold to the victim, with the case files showing that police had intercepted and seized the more than 70 grams of gold tied to the fraud.
On October 21, 2026, the Yi County Public Security Bureau received a tip indicating that funds linked to a fraud case had been used to purchase gold at an offline jewelry store in Yi County, raising suspicions of fraud-related money laundering. After receiving the lead, investigators immediately went to the jewelry store to carry out on-site verification, trace the transaction records and retrieve account ledgers.
Following a detailed investigation, police confirmed that the suspect had entered the store on October 19 under the pretext of buying a "three-gold" bridal set, used the fraud proceeds to purchase more than 70 grams of gold and then quickly left the scene. To identify the suspect quickly and halt the flow of illicit funds, officers launched a tracing and analysis mechanism, successfully identifying the mobile offender surnamed Chen and mapping out his movements and hiding place.
Through technical investigation, police determined that Chen was hiding in a hotel in Lingqiu County, Datong City, Shanxi Province. To prevent the suspect from fleeing and the stolen property from being moved, investigators traveled overnight to Lingqiu in Shanxi to carry out the arrest, successfully apprehending Chen in the early hours of the morning.
During interrogation, Chen confessed to his illegal activities. He admitted that after using the fraud money to buy gold, he deliberately chose a concealed method to hide the proceeds in order to evade police action, placing the gold inside a milk powder can and mailing it via ZTO Express to Dacheng County in Langfang City, Hebei Province, in an attempt to transfer the stolen goods and launder the funds through an out-of-town shipment.
After obtaining leads on the movement of the stolen property, investigators drove overnight to the ZTO Express transfer station in Dacheng County, Langfang, racing against time to inspect and intercept the package. Through emergency handling, officers successfully intercepted all parcels involved in the case and recovered the more than 70 grams of gold intact, cutting off this illegal chain of buying gold to launder money.
Further tracing along the line of inquiry revealed that the 70,000 yuan used to buy the gold came from a victim surnamed Li in Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia. Li recalled that while reading novels in a browser, he accidentally clicked on a pop-up advertisement, followed the prompts to download and install an unknown app, and was later induced by the platform's so-called online customer service to take part in fake rebate tasks, losing 70,000 yuan in total.
On November 12, the victim delivered a banner of gratitude to the case-handling officers at the Yi County Public Security Bureau.
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