Two loan sharks were arrested on Saturday for robbing a loan shark on Thursday, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou said during a special press conference yesterday.
Lei identified the two suspects as 35 and 30-year-old mainlanders surnamed Yang and Gong, and the victim as a 32-year-old female surnamed Yao, all of them loan sharks from the mainland, who told police that they are unemployed.
According to Lei, on Thursday at around 4:26 a.m., the Judiciary Police received a report from Yao that she had been robbed of chips worth HK$310,000 by Yang and Gong outside a casino in Cotai.
While being questioned by police, Yao revealed that she works as a loan shark who had lent HK$300,000 to a gambler from the mainland who had borrowed an additional HK$300,000 from Yang and Gong, Lei said.
After gambling away chips worth HK$100,000 in a casino in Cotai, Lei said, the mainlander had to leave to attend to an urgent matter. Yao put the remaining chips worth HK$500,000 into her bag and left the casino, but Yang and Gong arrived and tried to rob her of the chips.
During the altercation in the hotel-casino resort, according to Lei, a physical struggle ensued, ultimately causing the chips in the bag to scatter across the floor. Yang and Gong then took a total of HK$310,000 worth of chips and fled the scene. Yao managed to retrieve the remaining chips, worth HK$190,000, and subsequently reported the robbery to the Judiciary Police, Lei said.
According to Lei, casino security apprehended Gong in the vicinity and handed him over to the Judicial Police for further investigation. Gong denied involvement in the robbery and refused to cooperate.
On Saturday morning, Gong was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a robbery charge.
In a follow-up investigation, Lei said, PJ officers nabbed Yang in the peninsula’s northern district on Saturday night.
Yang was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, also facing a robbery charge.
Meanwhile, as Yao, Yang and Gong are suspected of usury, separate investigations will be launched.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded robbery suspect to a PJ van outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Armindo Neves
