CORONAVIRUS: Chinese businessman arrested on suspicion of test theft

“He is a good citizen and has significantly contributed to establishing the bond of friendship between Brazil and China.” The statement, on letterhead, is from the Chinese Association of Brazil about the vice president, Zheng Xiao Yun, or Marcos Zheng, who is in prison under suspicion of leading a gang arrested with 15,000 tests for coronaviruses and 2 million pieces of equipment. stolen prevention. He has already been kidnapped, saw a secretary shot to death, and also got away with a conviction for allegedly bringing counterfeit watches to Brazil. On the other hand, it facilitated meetings of Chinese bankers and businessmen at Palácio dos Bandeirantes, seat of the São Paulo government, and also with other politicians. He claims to have connected the government’s Health area with hospitals and doctors in Wuhan – the Chinese city where the pandemic originated – to exchange information about covid-19. His bodyguards are a military police officer and a Brazilian Army reserve sergeant. Heavily armed. With them, a rifle and a .40 carbine were found. He says he needs protection, as he experienced five days in captivity, was robbed, and even escaped a gunshot ambush.
It is now in the midst of investigating the diversion of a test load against the new coronavirus. The tests, whose batch matches that of a cargo stolen at the São Paulo International Airport, in Guarulhos, were at the Zheng property, where the Shanghai Association in Brazil also operates. Chaired by him, the organization is his visiting card in the meetings he has already promoted between businessmen and politicians. Zheng claims he has never dealt with hygiene supplies, much less without origin, and says his business is in sound equipment. And, through the entity, it has already promoted the sale of Brazilian products by the Chinese government, and also the shipment of items from their country of origin for “sale and donation in Brazil” – all with invoice. The version, given to the Civil Police, did not convince, and he was arrested in the act. The Court decreed indefinite imprisonment. The judge who ordered the preventive detention sees “audacity” in the actions of Zheng and 13 other prisoners on Saturday, with the sale of stolen equipment, which would supply hospitals in a country on the verge of overcrowding in its health system.The investigation The report in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo obtained exclusive access to the investigation that led to the group allegedly led by Zheng. Comparing the price paid by the importer and the request of those investigated for the cargo, the profit would be 5,000% for the crime. On the 2nd, a Qatar Airways flight arrived in Cumbica with 57 rapid test packages imported from China by a company contracted by hospitals. Everything was stored at the international cargo terminal and the volumes were removed to a carrier deposit in Santana, in the north zone, four days later. On the 8th, when the cargo was overhauled, employees discovered that 15 cardboard boxes had been emptied, and fitted to the outside of another 15, with the tests – presumably to cover up the diversion of materials. For each box, a thousand coronavirus tests were stored. In other words, 15 thousand disappeared. The company stipulates that the value of the material removed is R$ 80 thousand. The Civil Police of São Paulo received information that the tests would not only have fallen on the black market, but that the sale would have been offered to the importer itself. Head of the 3rd Tourist Service Precinct, Luís Alberto Guerra received information that the cargo had possibly been transferred to the Ipiranga district. Impersonating a businessman from the Northeast, he negotiated with criminals. They asked for R$4 million – the agreed amount ended up at R$3 million. At one point, the police identified themselves and gave the arrest warrant. In testimony, Zheng denied the crime. He said he has lived in Brazil for 25 years and “since his arrival he has always developed and mediated the relationship between Brazil and China”. “In fact, he has always brought Chinese businessmen to do business in this country, as well as traveling with Brazilian businessmen aiming to establish commercial relations with that country.”He also stressed that at no time “it has participated in any negotiation involving masks or tests, either directly or indirectly, and that in recent weeks the association has been dedicated to collaborating with the Brazilian authorities, as it contacted Chinese doctors who fought the covid, to that could help the public power of Brazil’. Following the opinion of the Public Ministry, judge Érika Fernandes Fortes imposed preventive detention on Sunday. Zheng’s lawyer, Daniel Bialski, said he had filed a request to relax his arrest and grant him probation. The police opened an inquiry to continue the investigations. The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.