The Judiciary Police (PJ), in conjunction with the Macau Customs Service (SA), busted on Tuesday evening a people-smuggling gang using a fishing vessel to carry two mainlanders illegally into Macau, PJ spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a special press conference yesterday.
According to a tip-off that the Judiciary Police had received recently, the gang was preparing to help individuals from the mainland enter Macau illegally on Tuesday, so both PJ and customs officers set up surveillance near the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) Ocean Station. They arrested two illegal immigrants at 7 p.m. on that day.
Later, the officers saw a wooden fishing vessel sailing off the waterfront leisure zone, leading to the interception of the vessel and the arrest of its skipper, a 31-year-old fisherman surnamed Yin.
Ho noted that the two illegal immigrants, a 34-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman, were banned from entering Macau for involvement in illegal currency exchange activities. They told the police they paid 40,000 yuan (44,800 patacas) to the gang to enter Macau.
Under questioning, Yin refused to cooperate.
Yin was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of organised crime and aiding and abetting illegal immigration, according to Ho.
People smugglers are known as “snakeheads” in the local Cantonese jargon.
The hooded mainland suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers yesterday from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a PJ vehicle en route to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP). – Photo: William Chan
