On the morning of May 28, a criminal gang wearing uniforms from the National Transportation Directorate (Dinatran) set up a fake checkpoint on the highway connecting Luque to Mariano Roque Alonso, near Silvio Pettirossi airport. The group intercepted a parcel delivery truck carrying a large shipment of the drug tirzepatide, bound for the city of Pedro Juan Caballero.
The criminals took the truck's two occupants hostage, drove them away in a car, and abandoned them hours later in Luque in a vehicle with cloned license plates. The truck and its cargo were taken to a warehouse in the La Concordia neighborhood of Mariano Roque Alonso, where the merchandise was transferred to another refrigerated truck before the gang fled.
Investigations based on security camera footage revealed that the assailants operated with more than five vehicles, including a dark gray Hyundai Tucson pickup truck with license plate BYH 712. This vehicle was identified as stolen in Brazil and bearing cloned plates from a car legally registered in Paraguay.
This discovery led investigators to suspect that the same gang or its members attempted to kidnap Chinese businessman Jin Xiaodi on the night of June 11. In Paraguay, he uses an identity card under the name Eason Tay Jin. The attack took place in the Loma Merlo neighborhood, also near Silvio Pettirossi airport. The criminals fled after a man intervened at the scene, abandoning the pickup truck used in the attempted kidnapping.
Jin Xiaodi, 43, was arrested on April 7 in Luque by officers from the Police Department of Vehicle Control, on an Interpol warrant for an alleged $10 million fraud in his home country. He presented a Paraguayan identity card and was released under alternative measures, including a nighttime work permit, which raised suspicions about his international connections.
Authorities believe the criminals were aware of the Chinese businessman's alleged dollar fortune, which motivated the attempted kidnapping. Police continue to investigate the connections between the tirzepatide drug thefts and the attack on Jin Xiaodi.