Details of mysterious kidnapping in Metro Vancouver revealed in drug lord’s parole decision

Details of a violent kidnapping that unfolded across the Lower Mainland in July have been revealed for the first time in a new parole board decision revoking the release of a convicted drug lord.

In July, residents in Richmond and Maple Ridge wondered about a large police presence in their neighbourhoods. At the time, the RCMP in both cities wouldn’t release any details about what was unfolding.

An Oct. 29 parole board decision, obtained Wednesday by Postmedia News, shows that Yong Long Ye and his girlfriend were grabbed outside an illegal gambling den in early July, eventually escaping their captors.

Board member Ryan Nash said that while Ye was held for 10 days and tortured before his escape, releasing him again on parole would be inconsistent “with the protection of society” and “would constitute an undue risk to the public.”

Ye told prison officials that he wasn’t gambling at the time, which would have been a breach of his parole conditions. He said he was dropping his girlfriend off to play mah-jong and later went back to pick her up.

“It was as you were leaving the building that you claimed that you and your girlfriend were kidnapped,” the decision said. “You said that your captors subjected you to burns, cuts, bruising, and removed one of your thumbnails and you showed your case management team physical evidence of these injuries. You said that your girlfriend suffered life-threatening injuries and remained in hospital. File information indicates that you appeared traumatized and declined to provide further details surrounding your assailants, the kidnapping or how you and your girlfriend escaped.”

Nash didn’t say where the kidnapping occurred, but Richmond RCMP is heading the investigation. The victims later escaped from a house in the 12100-block of 287th Street in Maple Ridge, according to neighbour accounts at the time.

Nash noted that “the police investigation into your kidnapping is ongoing and highly sensitive in nature, so details have not yet been made available.”

B.C. RCMP director of communications Dawn Roberts said Wednesday that “this case is a priority and remains under active investigation by the Richmond RCMP.”

Ye was sentenced to 18 years in December 2008 after pleading guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to conspiracy to import and traffic cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as laundering the proceeds of crime.

His criminal empire involved associates across Canada, in Australia, the U.S., Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, India and China, according to submissions at his sentencing hearing. He was buying cocaine in California and transporting it to Canada, as well as manufacturing meth for sale in Australia.

He was granted full parole in 2019 and had been working as a labourer for his girlfriend’s contracting company.