Five men from the mainland have been arrested for robbing a casino gambler in a hotel guestroom of HK$468,000, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a special press conference yesterday.
The quintet are aged between 28 and 36.
According to Ho, on Sunday the mainland victim won money gambling in a Cotai casino and contacted two of the suspects whom the victim had previously met at the casino. They struck a currency exchange deal and the victim went to quintet’s hotel guestroom.
When the victim entered the room, the suspects in the room pushed the victim onto a sofa, bound the victim’s hands and feet with three bathrobe belts, robbed him of HK$468,000 in cash, and fled. The victim managed to free himself within 20 minutes and sought help from the police.
The quintet then gambled away HK$400,000 in another casino in Cotai, with the remaining loot divided between them.
Three of the suspects were apprehended in a hotel guestroom in Taipa within two hours of the robbery being reported to the police. Ho noted that the local authorities discovered that the other two suspects had fled to the mainland. They quickly informed their mainland counterparts, leading to the duos’ arrest on Monday in Hunan.
The trio caught locally were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing robbery charges.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the three hooded suspects caught locally to a police vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: William Chan
