The Judiciary Police (PJ), in collaboration with the Macau Customs Service (SA), Guangdong Public Security Department and the Zhuhai Public Security Bureau (PSB), have busted a people-smuggling gang which assisted illegal immigrants to enter Macau from the mainland by sampan, PJ spokesman Lei Chi Hou said at a special press conference yesterday.
Lei announced the arrest of a male “snakehead” and three male illegal immigrants, as well as two male gang members including the gang’s kingpin on Monday, in which PJ and custom officers caught the “snakehead” on board a sampan in Macau’s coastal waters off Cheoc Van Beach and the illegal immigrant trio hidden in the bushes near Estrada da Aldeia in Coloane, while PSB officers nabbed the two gang members aged between 40 and 46 in Zhuhai.
According to Lei, the “snakehead”, who told the police that he is a fisherman, is surnamed Ding and aged 31, while the illegal immigrant threesome, aged between 25 and 32, have been barred from entering Macau legally for two to four years due to their respective charges of overstaying and engaging in illegal currency exchange activities in the city.
A PJ investigation showed, Lei said, that the three illegal immigrants had paid the gang between 30,000 yuan and 40,000 yuan each to help them illegally enter Macau, adding that the illegal immigrants told the police that they were smuggled to Macau so that they could gamble here, while the “snakehead” refused to cooperate with the police.
The Judiciary Police transferred the three illegal immigrants and the “snakehead” to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, where the latter faces charges of organised crime and aiding and abetting people smuggling.
People smugglers are known as “snakeheads” in the local Cantonese jargon.
This pixilated handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) during yesterday’s special press conference shows the arrest of the two of the three illegal immigrants from the mainland by PJ officers near Estrada da Aldeia in Coloane on Monday.
