An armed fugitive's fondness for online games led to his capture by Taiwan police last week. Cops had been searching for Chang Hsi-ming (AKA Evil Dragon) on suspicion of murder, illegal possession of weapons and multiple kidnappings for more than a year, Reuters reports (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050713/od_uk_nm/oukoe_crime_taiwan;_ylt=AstUsrKRW4ZdLFcKUUAHNCus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc-).

A $300K reward for information leading to Chang's capture remained unclaimed. It was only after detectives discovered Chang's fondness for playing an online role-playing game called Heaven that they hit on the approach that enabled them to track down his hideout. After unmasking his pseudonym and tracking his location from the Internet Protocol address of his PC, police sent 130 police and two armoured vehicles over to Chang's suspected hideout in central Taiwan. During the subsequent gun battle, Chang and a police officer were wounded. Both were taken to hospital where they are expected to make a full recovery. Chang's bodyguard, Lin Tai-heng, received gunshot wounds to the head and was taken to Taichung's Kuang Tien General Hospital immediately following the raid, The Taipei Times reports (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050713/od_uk_nm/oukoe_crime_taiwan;_ylt=AstUsrKRW4ZdLFcKUUAHNCus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc-). ®

Related links

Analysis (http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20050716_1.htm) of media reports on the raid

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