Prosecution of ex-fugitive Lai to begin

Lai Changxing, the main suspect in the huge Xiamen smuggling operation, has been transferred to Xiamen City People's Procuratorate in East China's Fujian province for prosecution, according to a statement released by the local customs anti-smuggling agency and the prosecutor's office on Friday.

Lai, 53, from Fujian province, is accused of running a multibillion-dollar smuggling operation around the 1990s and paying bribes while he was chairman of the Yuanhua Group in Xiamen, Fujian.

After the case emerged, he fled to Canada. Chinese judicial authorities worked for 12 years to have him returned.