Assistant to Commissioner-General of the Unitary Police Service (SPU) Luis Leong said yesterday that during the anti-crime Thunderbolt Operation 2023, carried out from June 12 to September 21, Macau’s law enforcement forces, comprising the Macau Customs Service (SA), Judiciary Police (PJ) and Public Security Police (PSP), investigated 86,005 people, took in 4,815 for further questioning, and filed 930 suspected criminal cases, with 1,140 suspects transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for further investigation.
Of the 4,815 people who had been taken to a police station for questioning, 674 were found to be involved in illegal currency exchange businesses, 219 in loansharking and 122 in prostitution, Leong added.
Leong pointed out that among the 1,140 people who were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office, 722 were sentenced or fined while 86 were remanded in custody.
Leong said that during the about three-month-long operation, 2,014 non-residents were deported from Macau for engaging in illegal activities, with 20 of the arrestees having been the target of an interception or detention order, 12 of whom were immediately sent to jail.
Leong announced the statistics during a press conference at the SPU headquarters in China Plaza.
According to Leong, the operation’s long list of suspected cases includes 23 drug, 55 usury, 182 fraud and 154 theft cases, as well as 27 cases involving prohibited weapons and explosive substances, in addition to cases involving robbery, money laundering, illegal gambling, pimping, computer fraud and aiding and abetting smuggling.
Leong said that the SPU planned the joint police operation in light of the situation and development trend of the local security environment while, at the same time, through the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau police cooperation mechanism, intelligence sharing and case cooperation, “jointly building a solid public-security defence for the Greater Bay Area (GBA) and thus safeguarding regional security and stability.”
Assistant to Commissioner-General of the Unitary Police Service (SPU) Luis Leong looks on during yesterday’s press conference on the SPU’s premises at China Plaza. – Photo: Yuki Lei
