Fu Yaobo

Zhang Qingzhao

BEIJING, Feb. 6 -- Two of China's most wanted fugitives, who fled abroad a year and half ago under suspicion of jointly embezzling public funds of 29.96 million yuan (4.56 million U.S. dollars), have been repatriated, the country's anti-corruption agency announced on Saturday.

Fu Yaobo and Zhang Qingzhao, who both featured on an official list of China's 100 most wanted fugitives released in April, were repatriated from the Caribbean state of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said.

Fu, 50, was an employee in charge of case hearing in the labor and social security detachment in Benxi City in northeast China's Liaoning Province, while Zhang, 44, was a cashier for the same detachment.

Since September 2014, Fu and Zhang have been on the run in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Grenada, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

After a 51-day joint operation between Chinese police and their counterparts in Grenada, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the two were captured in a mountainous area in the suburbs of the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the CCDI said.