The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced on Friday that Guangdong police had cracked down on three currency exchange gangs involving practice banknotes, busted five illegal currency exchange cases, smashed six underground banks and arrested 101 suspects involving 1.47 billion yuan, pointing out that the number of suspects involved in illegal currency exchange activities in Macau has increased “significantly”, leading to a rise in crimes such as fraud, robbery, theft, false imprisonment and people smuggling, affecting the stability of public security in the mainland and Macau.
The ministry held a special press conference in Beijing on Friday, announcing a number of major cases detected by public security authorities in the mainland in conjunction with their counterparts in Macau.
According to the press conference, among the operations by various Public Security Bureaux (PSB) in the mainland, Zhuhai police busted two criminal gangs operating three underground banks, in which the two respective kingpins set up a travel agency and a trading company in Zhuhai’s Gongbei border town to engage in illegal currency exchange activities, involving, respectively, 200 million yuan and 800 million yuan, while police in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, have arrested a mainland man engaged in illegal currency exchange activities in Macau since June last year, in which he exchanged currency for casino gamblers at rates slightly higher than the normal market rate through WeChat, Alipay, and bank accounts in several local casinos, in order to make a profit from the difference between the two rates, amounting to more than 10 million yuan.
Police in Jiangxi province, according to the press conference, busted a 33-member gang which had sold over 100 entry and exit permits since 2019 to currency exchange gang members so that they could carry out their illegal “business” in Macau. The bona fide owners of the permits were unaware of the scheme.
The press conference defined illegal currency exchange activities as crimes in which gangs illegally exchange large amounts of Hong Kong dollars for mainland gamblers travelling to Macau, pointing out that the problem has been around for a long time, with the aim of circumventing the mainland’s financial control policies, such as its limit on cash in yuan that can be taken out of the mainland as well as cash withdrawals from ATM cards outside the mainland. The ministry pointed out that currency exchange gangs would exchange Hong Kong dollars through underground banks in places such as Zhuhai, and then smuggle the Hong Kong dollars in cash to Macau a little at a time. They would then look for clients in need of currency exchange in local casinos and hotels, making a profit of more than HK$1.5 billion a year.
During the press conference, mainland residents travelling to Macau were urged to strictly abide by the laws, regulations and currency policies of the two places, to exchange currency only through legal and legitimate channels, and to refrain from engaging in illegal transactions, so as to jointly safeguard the social stability and economic order between the mainland and Macau.
April 2021 file photo the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) in Beijing.
– Photo: Wikimedia Commons
