THREE foreigners have been arrested by Guangdong police for allegedly murdering two Chinese businessmen in Zhongshan City, Chinese-language newspapers reported yesterday.

Police did not release their identities but according to a report, they are from a West Asian country.

The victims, 37-year-old cousins from Guangxi identified only by their surname Wu, jointly operated a lamp factory in Zhongshan.

The 30-year-old mastermind, a businessman who had trade disputes with the Wus, had allegedly plotted to get rid of the cousins.

He allegedly hired two hitmen from his country in September and offered them US$20,000 as reward for the killings.

The two hitmen, who are brothers, flew to Guangzhou on Oct. 15, posing as businessmen coming to do business with the Wus.

They allegedly killed the Wus on the way from the Guangzhou airport to Zhongshan in the early morning of Oct. 16 and dumped the bodies at an exit of the Foshan-Kaiping Expressway. The bodies were found hours later.

The three then fled to Guangzhou, from where they flew to Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, via Shanghai.

They were arrested by police at 2 a.m. Oct. 18 at the national border.(Li Jing)

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