China's largest gold theft case solved: 27 kilograms of gold recovered; ringleader used gold pieces to pay for his taxi fare.

According to Mars Finance, on June 22, Nanjing police announced the complete cracking of the largest gold theft case in China to date, with all 11 suspects apprehended and all 27 kilograms of stolen gold recovered. In the early morning of May 16, 2026, a luxury goods store in Jiangning District, Nanjing, was the victim of a meticulously planned theft. The mastermind, Tong, entered the store through a second-floor window, packing 37 gold items totaling 27 kilograms, worth over 27 million yuan, into a bag, without touching any nearby luxury watches or watches. His accomplice, Wang, sneaked into the monitoring room beforehand, shutting down nearly 80 surveillance cameras and formatting all data before flying to Bangkok to act as a "remote director." The fact that the door locks at the crime scene were intact and the surveillance data was cleared initially confused the police investigation. The Nanjing task force, by recovering surveillance data and tracing public video footage, reconstructed Tong's escape route from Nanjing southwards via a ride-hailing service. According to the driver's later account, Tong appeared flustered during the journey, repeatedly changing his destination. Upon arriving in Nanning, unable to pay the fare of over 7,000 yuan, he even broke off half a 50-gram gold piece from his bag to pay the debt. In the early morning of May 18th, the Aidian Border Police Station in Chongzuo, Guangxi, received an urgent request for assistance from Nanjing police. Police officers and auxiliary police completed their deployment and precise control within 3 minutes. At 5:40 AM, a white Jetta sedan was intercepted just 100 meters from the China-Vietnam border, and Tong was apprehended on the spot, carrying 8.75 kilograms of gold. From receiving the report to the interception, less than half an hour had passed. On May 23rd, the main suspect, Wang, was apprehended in Bangkok and extradited back to China. Police recovered 13.2 kilograms of gold from his residence. Two highly educated gamblers, strangers to each other—Tong, a hospital employee, and Wang, a software company development manager—turned to crime due to deep online gambling debts (ranging from several million to seven million yuan), ultimately both falling into the clutches of the law.