Seven suspects have been taken into custody for allegedly selling pandemic passes, Shanghai police said yesterday.
Hongkou District police began its investigation last week after receiving a tip that someone was selling pandemic vehicle passes for as much as 4,000 yuan (US$600) each on the Internet.
The man selling passes online was identified as a transportation company driver surnamed Yang, who was hired by four other drivers to sell the passes they received from a transportation company manager surnamed Zhang.
The police found that Zhang got the passes from a manager of a food delivery company surnamed Fu.
Fu was in charge of applying for the passes for his company’s vehicle fleet, which is eligible for such passes. He contacted Zhang about two weeks ago and sold the passes for 400 yuan each, according to the police.
Zhang and the other suspects then increased the price of the passes and sold them to 37 people for a total of 100,000 yuan.
The suspects could face the criminal charge of selling official documents.