A male currency exchange dealer from Hong Kong was zapped on Friday afternoon by four mainlanders in the head and back with a stun gun and lost consciousness for about two to three minutes, during which he was robbed of HK$500,000 in cash by the quartet, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong said during a special press conference at the PJ headquarters in Zape on Saturday.
Cheong announced the arrest of the male quartet by mainland police officers separately in Dongguan Guangzhou and Zhuhai about eight hours after the HK$500,000-robbery occurred in a hotel guestroom in Cotai.
Cheong noted that the quartet, aged between 32 and 36, are surnamed Liu, He, Li and Yu respectively.
The Judiciary Police, according to Cheong, were notified by the Public Security Police (PSP) at 4 p.m. on Friday about the attack and robbery. The middle-aged victim told the police that he contacted the four men, who had expressed earlier that day their interest through a social media platform in exchanging yuan worth HK$500,000, and went to the hotel guestroom to carry out the currency deal. When the victim arrived at the room, according to Cheong, he took out HK$500,000 in cash and gave the cash to Liu and He to count, during which both suddenly pulled a stun gun and zapped him in the head and back, causing him to lose consciousness for two to three minutes. The victim said that he was then tied up with a bathrobe belt and electric cables. The duo then left the room with the HK$500,000 in cash.
After about two to three hours the victim managed to free himself and reported the case to the police with the help of the hotel staff, Cheong said.
A further PJ investigation confirmed that, according to Cheong, the robbery had also involved Li and Yu, and found that the foursome had quickly absconded to the mainland through the Barrier Gate border checkpoint after committing the crime.
After identifying the four suspects, the Judiciary Police activated a regional cooperation mechanism with the mainland police, Cheong said, adding that under the command of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department, the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau (PSB), Zhuhai PSB, and Dongguan PSB carried out a joint operation and arrested the quartet in the three places on Friday night.
Cheong said that according to the mainland police, all four suspects refused to cooperate and the police were still tracing the whereabouts of the stolen money at the time of the press conference.
This pixelated handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Saturday shows one of the robbery suspects being arrested by mainland police officers in a room on Friday night.
