Posted on 07/21/2003 12:27:37 PM PDT by knighthawk
A FUGITIVE wanted in the United States for a pair of drug-related killings has been handed over by China despite the lack of an extradition treaty between the two governments, the US Embassy said today.
Nguyen Hao Duc was flown to the United States from Beijing yesterday, accompanied by a New York City police detective and two FBI agents, an embassy spokeswoman said.
Nguyen, who, an embassy statement said, was accused of being an "enforcer and assassin" for a drug gang, had been charged in a New York federal court with killing two men in Toronto in 1994 on the orders of the gang's leader.
Nguyen was arrested in May in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong at the request of the FBI, the embassy said. The spokeswoman said China agreed to hand him over to US authorities even though the two sides had no extradition treaty.
"This was special. We negotiated this specific case," the spokeswoman said
She said she did not know of any other cases in which China has handed over crime suspects wanted by the United States.
The spokeswoman also said she did not have Nguyen's nationality or other details about his background.
Nguyen's gang was involved in heroin smuggling, armed robbery and migrant smuggling, according to the embassy statement. It did not say where the gang was based.
Nguyen was accused of planning the Toronto killings with other gang members while in New York, the statement said.
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