A total of 48 men and women – comprising suspected pimps and prostitutes – were arrested on Wednesday in Macau and Zhuhai for their alleged involvement in a prostitution ring, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a special press conference yesterday.
According to Leng, the local and Zhuhai police smashed a cross-border prostitution ring on Wednesday. The Judiciary Police arrested a 28-year-old mainland woman surnamed Li in Macau near Central Park in Taipa while the mainland police arrested 47 suspects in various locations in Zhuhai. The mainland suspects comprise 33 suspected members – 32 men and a woman – of the ring, of which six were key members, as well as 14 prostitutes controlled by the ring, Leng said.
Leng said the Judiciary Police and the Zhuhai police jointly investigated a cross-border prostitution case in November 2019. The investigation revealed that the ring mainly used an app to look for clients and arranged for its mainland gang members to bring women from the mainland to Macau for prostitution. After an in-depth investigations, the two police forces were able to identify some of the suspected gang members as well as some of the prostitutes working for the ring.
According to Leng, the gang stopped operating last year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it became active again recently. The police discovered that the gang had changed its modus operandi by running a website link and setting up another app.
The gang frequently hired new prostitutes in the mainland who each just worked for several days in Macau before returning to the mainland.
Leng said the Judiciary Police and the Zhuhai police took joint action on Wednesday. The Judiciary Police arrested Li near Taipa Central Park. She refused to cooperate with the police. PJ officers searched her home near the park and seized a large number of condoms, multiple forged documents, and HK$110,000 in cash suspected to be the earnings from prostitution. All the others were arrested in Zhuhai.
Li was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of pimping, organised crime and document forgery, according to Leng.
The ring’s only suspect arrested in Macau is being escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle. Photos courtesy of TDM
Evidence seized from the female suspect arrested in Macau such as large quantities of condoms and Hong Kong dollars is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
