The Judiciary Police (PJ), in conjunction with the Macau Customs Service (SA), arrested a male cross-border gang member in the city’s coastal waters off the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) Ocean Station on Wednesday for smuggling two mainlanders to Macau from Zhuhai using a wooden boat that evening, PJ spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a special press conference yesterday.
According to Leng, the 40-year-old suspect from Guangxi is surnamed Long. The two illegal immigrants – a male in his forties and a female aged 36 – have been barred from entering Macau since last year for three and two years respectively. The duo claimed that they had separately paid the gang 35,000 yuan (39,190 patacas) and 38,000 yuan to assist them in entering Macau for the purpose of gambling, Leng said.
The Judiciary Police received intelligence recently that a criminal gang was smuggling illegal immigrants to Macau in a wooden boat from Zhuhai, Leng said, adding that the Judiciary Police joined forces with the Macau Customs Service at 7 p.m. on Wednesday to put the coastal waters off a cycle track on Avenida dos Jogos da Ásia Oriental under surveillance, where they discovered a wooden boat berthing near Ocean Station.
According to Leng, PJ officers intercepted the two illegal immigrants, who were officially banned from entering Macau last year as the male was charged with abetting illegal immigration and the female was found to have engaged in prostitution, at Ocean Station.
Under questioning, Long told the police that he had received a “commission” of 20,000 yuan from the gang to smuggle the illegal immigrant duo by boat to Macau, Leng noted.
In the operation, the Judiciary Police seized the 20,000 yuan from Long, as well as the boat, Leng added.
Long was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of organised crime and aiding and abetting illegal immigrants.
People smugglers are known as “snake heads” in Cantonese jargon.
Evidence seized from the “snakehead” such as phones and banknotes is displayed during yesterday’s special press conference at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters in Zape. – Photo: Yuki Lei
