One male and two female Vietnamese suspected gang members were arrested on Sunday for people smuggling, mainly assisting Vietnamese illegal immigrants to enter and exit Macau on the shoreline of the University of Macau’s (UM) Hengqin campus by swimming and climbing, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a special press conference yesterday.
Two Vietnamese illegal immigrants were also arrested during the operation.
The three suspects comprising a 33-year-old man surnamed Nguyen holds an expired temporary stay permit; his 43-year-old girlfriend surnamed Nguyen, works as a domestic helper and a 52-year-old woman surnamed Than also works as a domestic helper.
The two Vietnamese illegal immigrants are a 29-year-old man surnamed Pham who had no identity documents on him and a 52-year-old man surnamed Nguyen who carried a Vietnamese passport. Both had entered Macau illegally to look for employment. They told the police as they had been unable to land a job each they planned to leave Macau illegally, Chan said.
According to Chan, the Judiciary Police have been paying close attention to the COVID-19 epidemic situation in neighbouring areas, and have strengthened intelligence exchanges with their counterparts in the mainland in order to clamp down on people-smuggling gangs.
In a follow-up investigation of a Vietnamese people-smuggling gang earlier this month, the Judiciary Police learnt that key members of the gang were preparing to assist two Vietnamese to leave Macau illegally by swimming from the shoreline of UM campus to another part of Hengqin. The Judiciary Police put the suspected gang members under surveillance.
Chan said PJ officers discovered that one of the suspects escorted two men to the UM campus shoreline on Sunday night. The officers arrested the male surnamed Nguyen who is a key member of the gang as well as the two illegal immigrants (Pham and Nguyen) when they were about to leave Macau, and seized a hemp rope used for climbing.
The Judiciary Police arrested Nguyen’s girlfriend also surnamed Nguyen and the other female suspect (Than) in two flats in San Kio district and Areia Preta district respectively later that night.
According to Chan, the gang had been operating for about three months in assisting mostly Vietnamese to illegally enter and exit Macau by swimming. The gang charged each “client” 12,000 yuan. The male Nguyen was tasked with meeting and assisting the “clients”, while Nguyen’s girlfriend was in charge of managing the smuggling fees. Than’s job was it to contact and look for potential “clients”. Chan said Than got paid 2,000 yuan for each “client” that she introduced to the gang.
The trio were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of organised crime and aiding and abetting, while the two illegal immigrants (Pham and Nguyen) were already sentenced to four months behind bars, according to Chan.
The three suspects are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle yesterday. Photos courtesy of TDM
Evidence seized from the suspects such as four smartphones and two hemp ropes is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
