$3m ransom demand largest ever in NZ

By AINSLEY THOMSON

The $3 million ransom demanded by the kidnappers of baby Kahu is believed to be the largest in New Zealand history.

Only two weeks ago, $500,000 was demanded when a 6-year-old boy was snatched from his West Auckland home at knifepoint and held for nearly two days until the ransom was left beside an Auckland motorway.

His frantic parents, who are Taiwanese, found him unharmed after the ransom was dropped off in an apparent police sting.

Shortly afterwards, police raided a house and arrested two men from China.

Wei Hua Liu, 24, and Xiang Jun Wei, 27, have been remanded in custody on charges of kidnapping, assault with a knife, breaking and entering, and breaking and entering with a weapon.

In 1987, Jenny Gallagher was abducted at gunpoint from her Hamilton home.

The kidnappers demanded $500,000 in used banknotes and $500,000 in uncut diamonds.

They threatened to kill Mrs Gallagher if police were called.

She was held in bush for two nights before police rescued her.

The incident began when two Hamilton fitter welders, Fred Orrell, then 54, and Dean Ronald Cree, then 24, rang Mrs Gallagher, wife of prominent Hamilton businessman Bill Gallagher, posing as writers for a British magazine composing an article on successful Waikato families.

Mrs Gallagher, whose husband was overseas, agreed to an interview. When the pair turned up at her house, they pointed a shotgun at her.

She was bundled into her car and driven to a bush campsite at Te Pahu, 20km to the southwest, where she was kept bound and blindfolded.

Four years earlier, Oamaru schoolgirl Gloria Kong was dragged at gunpoint from her family's home at the beginning of a 38-hour ordeal.

The kidnappers demanded $120,000 and threatened to kill her if police were called.

Detective Sergeant George Koria, the officer in charge of the Asian crime squad in Auckland, said that in Asian countries crimes such as kidnapping and extortion were commonplace.

Because people were afraid of threats to their families they often paid up without reporting the incidents to the police.

A Hong Kong businessman had recently paid HK$1 million ($287,000 ) to get his son back without going to the police, said Mr Koria.

In Auckland, between one and three cases of kidnapping involving Asians are reported each month. Those taken are often students.

Full coverage: Baby Kahu kidnapping