FOR over two decades, Chinese businessman Hou Xue Cheng has danced through Namibia’s legal system, mysteriously dodging convictions for alleged death threats, wildlife crimes, smuggling, money laundering and corruption.
Hou, also referred to as the Mafia Boss, was arrested with an accomplice on 7 January, after allegedly attempting to smuggle seal genitals from Namibia to Angola.
His latest arrest was treated as routine, with no fanfare or media statement released by the authorities. But a closer look shows that Hou has been dodging prosecution in Namibia for over 20 years.
The latest arrest of the alleged prolific smuggler could be yet another chapter in Hou’s epic tale of being at odds with the law but never facing any accountability. Even in his native China he is wanted for ivory smuggling.
The Issue’s preliminary investigation indicates that Hou is involved in at least six active Namibian court cases. He, however, always seems to get bail and avoid conviction. The country’s inability to successfully convict international criminals has left law-enforcement officials like the police, prosecutors and customs officials frustrated.
Detailed questions sent via Hou’s lawyer Kadhila Amoomo last week have not been answered at the time of publication.
CONTRABAND KING
On 7 January, customs officials at Hosea Kutako International Airport were on high alert, looking to intercept any potential contraband from being smuggled out of Namibia – their senses heightened by an incident a fortnight earlier.
On Christmas Eve, a cargo parcel containing seal products, including genitals, was sent from Namibia’s largest and busiest airport to China. Law-enforcement sources told The Issue the Chinese authorities alerted Namibia to a parcel that did not carry the required permits. How it was authorised to leave Namibia remains a mystery.
Later that afternoon, the police and customs officials at the airport arrested Chinese national Chang Xianming (44), who was accompanied by Hou. Perhaps Hou’s presence raised suspicion. Chang Xianming was travelling to Angola and his two suitcases were found to have been packed with 41 parcels of seal genitals. The pair could not present permits or valid paperwork for the parcels, and they were arrested on the spot. Internationally dried seal bull genitals carry a wholesale price of about US$1 300 (N$24 500) per kilogram. The police also found N$20 000 in cash in the vehicle they used to travel to the airport.
For Hou, a suspected senior criminal underworld figure, the arrest comes just two weeks after he was released on bail from police custody. He was granted bail on 24 December, the day the mystery seal genitals parcel was sent to China. This coincidence, according to law-enforcement sources, made Hou the prime suspect in investigations into the parcel. Hou’s release from custody in December came after he was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill controversial Chinese businesswoman Qiaoxia Wu, better known as Stina Wu.
He allegedly threatened to kill the politically connected Wu in Windhoek on 20 November. Wu, who has been reported to be a close friend of politicians like minister of labour, industrial relations and employment creation Utoni Nujoma and former police chief-turned-Ohangwena governor Sebastian Ndeitunga, opened the case with the police because she feared for her life and believed Hou has the means to carry out his threat.
According to police sources, the businesswoman is feared among Namibia’s Chinese community. She has also been accused of having strong connections to the police because of her friendship with Ndeitunga. The fact that she fears Hou perhaps confirms suspicions that he is a dangerous underworld figure, a senior police officer believes. Magistrate Jurina Hochobes, in this case, granted Hou bail of N$10 000 on Christmas Eve. He is set to appear in court again on 23 January.
Wu is not the first woman to have been on the receiving end of Hou’s alleged death threats. His 2004 criminal case revolved around charges of assault by threat for having allegedly threatened a Chinese woman with firearms at a Windhoek hotel and casino on 26 June that year.
In 2016, New Era quoted a court statement by Hou’s Namibian ex-wife, who complained that Hou was abusive and threatened to shoot her. It was also in this statement that the daily quoted the then-estranged wife claiming that Hou told her there was nothing she could do to him, “because he was a mafia boss”.
Hou has a significant history of brushes with the law in Namibia. His six pending criminal cases in local magistrate’s courts relate to wildlife crime, obstruction of justice and assault by threatening. The obstruction of justice charges emanate from a December 2023 incident in which Hou has been accused of stealing a container truck impounded by the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA). The said truck contained goods from China and was sealed by NamRA for inspection purposes. Hou is accused of unlawfully taking the truck, removing the NamRA seal and the contents of the truck, before hiding the truck and the seals. According to court documents, magistrate Olga Muharukua ordered him to appear in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on 7 March in anticipation of a decision by the prosecutor general. Hou is out on N$30 000 bail.
Exactly two weeks after that court appearance, Hou will again be expected to appear in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on 26 March. This time to answer a case related to wildlife crimes dating back to 2014. In the case, Hou is charged with three others: Indian national Rajayah Ranjith Kumar, Chinese national Sha Zhiwei and Namibian national Hamutenya Stanislaus Hamutenya. Hou is listed as accused number one.
The four men are charged for allegedly being found in the unlawful possession of four elephant tusks, one pangolin, seven zebra skins, one leopard skin, and one cheetah skin. Kumar and Sha have absconded and are believed to have fled the country after being granted bail of N$20 000 each.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) also wants a word with Hou. He is set to defend himself against a case brought against him and co-accused Leo Paulus by the ACC on 24 April. Hou is charged under the Anti-Corruption Act for allegedly bribing a government official. Paulus was a senior customs official at the time of their arrest in 2019.
SLIPPERY
Hou Xue Cheng also goes by the name Hou Hok Shing. He hails from the Hebei province in China, in what appears to be Chinese government-issued documents seen by The Issue.
These documents indicated that Hou is a fugitive and is wanted by the Chinese government to answer to charges of ivory smuggling. He was arrested on 16 February 2011 by customs officials at Beijing International Airport for carrying 12 kilograms of ivory, while the legal limit is 6kgs. Hou escaped police custody a month later and fled the country on 10 March 2011 – a day after spending his 35th birthday behind bars. He would later return to Namibia to continue living as a person of interest to law-enforcement agencies.
Police spokesperson Kauna Shikwambi confirmed to The Issue that the Chinese government has, through Interpol, confirmed that Hou is wanted to face criminal charges in that country. Shikwambi added that there has not been a formal extradition request from China for Hou, limiting what the Namibian authorities can do in respect of that particular case. The Chinese embassy in Namibia has also not responded to questions about Hou’s status as a fugitive, sent last week.
Oxpeckers, Africa’s first and premium environmental investigative journalism unit, in 2017 pointed to Hou being a central figure of a syndicate responsible for illegal timber smuggling out of southern Africa to China via the port of Walvis Bay.
The exposé was written by Namibian investigative journalist John Grobler, who reported that Hou first came to Namibia around 2001 as a horticultural expert and had his first brush with the law in around 2004 when he was arrested on a charge of pointing a firearm.
Since that initial arrest 21 years ago, Hou has been actively playing ‘catch me if you can’ with the Namibian authorities, with him seemingly being two steps ahead all the time. He even survived an attempt by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security in 2004 to deport him. At the time the ministry had declared him an “undesirable alien”. The ministry did not respond to questions seeking clarity on Hou’s status in Namibia and an update on the 2004 move to deport him, at the time of publishing.
Hou has been arrested at least seven times in Namibia since 2014. He is also a fugitive from Chinese justice, but remains unconvicted and unsentenced. The ACC, the police, the ministries of home affairs and environment, the Office of the Prosecutor General and NamRA all took aim at Hou, but he is still standing, with the criminal cases against him not going anywhere.
Last year, for example, he managed to escape prosecution in another major wildlife crimes case, where the magistrate dismissed the case twice due to the slow pace of police investigations. In this case, Hou was allegedly again found with 158 pieces of ivory, one zebra skin, one leopard skin and 382 sachets of seal genitals.
Court documents state that Hou was also charged for being in possession of an unlicensed firearm. Charges of unlawfully dealing in protected wildlife products without government permission and money laundering were also added.
However, exactly two months and five days later, the case was dismissed. This case was first thrown out of the Windhoek Magistrates’ Court in Katutura on 15 March last year after magistrate Johannes Shuuveni found that no progress was made since its inception. Hou’s bail of N$100 000 was returned. The state reinstated the charges a month later, which were on 29 July again thrown out by Shuuveni. “Investigation is taking too long and the matter is not ripe or worth being on the roll,” Shuuveni stated as reasons for allowing Hou to walk in court documents.
Law-enforcement sources consider Hou “extremely lucky” to have had his charges thrown out.
It’s common practice in Namibia that courts deny suspects who appear on serious charges bail. This includes poaching and wildlife crimes, and armed robbery. The chances of being granted bail further diminish if the suspect is already facing other similar serious charges, like those in Hou’s case.
